Santa Barbara Zoo's aged elephant Little Mac euthanized

Little Mac, a 48-year-old Asian elephant that was a fixture on the Santa Barbara Zoo for practically all her life, was euthanized this week after a pointy decline in well being, officers mentioned.

The zoo mentioned Little Mac was euthanized round 7 p.m. Wednesday in her exhibit yard, surrounded by keepers and workers who cared for her over time.

She had been in what the zoo referred to as hospice care after continual issues along with her tooth and arthritis in her legs have been compounded by the onset of different medical issues in June, mentioned Julie Barnes, the zoo’s vp of animal care and well being.

“She continued to say no regardless of our greatest efforts, particularly previously two weeks,” Barnes mentioned in a press release. “We had exhausted the medical choices out there that might permit her to have an excellent high quality of life. It was time to let her go.”

Little Mac got here to the zoo from Mysore, India, in 1972 with one other feminine Asian elephant in trade for six California sea lions.

On the time she was a 1½-year-old, 4-foot-tall (1.2-meter) obvious orphan present in a forest.

She was named by Herb Peterson, the proprietor of a number of Santa Barbara-area McDonald’s eating places who paid for the airline flight.

Her companion, Sujatha, had been born to an elephant that labored in a logging camp.

Sujatha was 47 when she was euthanized on Oct. 16, 2018, as a consequence of issues associated to outdated age.

Barnes mentioned that Little Mac hadn’t proven any indicators of melancholy or regarding behaviors after Sujatha’s dying and if she hadn’t out of the blue declined she doubtless would have been thought of for switch to a sanctuary or different facility the place she might have been launched to different elephants.

Her dying marks the top of the Santa Barbara Zoo’s elephant program.

The zoo famous that it’s providing workers and guests assets for coping with grief.