http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-21-elephant-attack_x.htm

By Leon Alligood, USA TODAY
A 36-year-old woman whose love for pachyderms led her from her native Maine to rural Lewis County, Tenn., was attacked and killed Friday morning at a preserve for aging elephants, authorities said.
Also, a man who handles the 22 Asian and African elephants at The Elephant Sanctuary was injured and hospitalized late Friday at Maury Regional Medical Center in Columbia, Tenn.

Because the employees' next of kin had not been notified Friday night, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and the Lewis County Sheriff's Department would not release their names.

The aggressor was Winkie, a 40-year-old female Asian elephant who has been at the sanctuary for six years and who has a history of attacking humans who worked with her.

The veteran handlers were tending to Winkie around 11:30-11:45 a.m. Friday.

"She was on one side. He was on the other. The elephant turned on her. She was apparently on the side where the elephant had an injury, an eye injury," said Doug Markham, spokesman for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. The agency licenses and inspects facilities, such as the sanctuary.

When the elephant attacked the woman, Markham said her colleague tried to distract the 7,600-pound animal, but ended up getting hurt, too.

By the time emergency workers arrived, the elephant had moved away from the body, which was retrieved without a problem, according to Lewis County Sheriff Dwayne Kilpatrick.

"She was dead at the scene," he said.

This was not the first time Winkie, born in Burma (now called Myanmar) and captured as a calf, had tried to harm a handler. According to the sanctuary's website, the animal hurt several keepers at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, Wis., her former home for three decades. The organization's website indicated that Winkie had adjusted to her new home and roommates.

It is unclear what will happen to the elephant now.

"It's undecided. We've never had an incident like this," Markham said. "Our people will be discussing that. Nobody was breaking any laws, so it's undecided right now."

The elephant was being held in a barn at the facility Friday evening, according to the sheriff.

"They're in a secure, controlled environment," he said.

Messages left Friday evening at the sanctuary's offices in Nashville and Hohenwald, Tenn., were not returned.

The woman had been a sanctuary employee for eight years, a handler for six years, Kilpatrick said.

"She had been around this animal before, many times," he said. "Some of the neighbors I talked to said she was very good with animals. She was a person that loved elephants. That was her love."

In fact, she was one of the first employees at the sanctuary, which Carol Buckley and Scott Blais opened in 1995.

The sanctuary has expanded to 2,700 acres. The non-profit's mission is to provide a haven for old and sick elephants, many of which have spent their lives in captivity in zoos or circuses.

The sanctuary is not open to the public, but an "ele-cam" on the organization's website offers a video view of the "retired" elephants.

Friday's death at the compound is the first at the facility, which is licensed as a Class I exotic animal facility by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. The sanctuary was in compliance with their license and state laws, according to Markham.

"This facility is outstanding and they always do what they're supposed to do," the agency spokesman said. "Elephants have to be kept in certain kinds of pens. They have to be enclosed, and they were. They have a huge facility out there, and they were inside the law."

In the past 15 years, Markham said those who are licensed to house exotic animals have had a good safety record.

"We have a lot of exotic animals, from cats to monkeys to God knows what else, and we've had no deaths and only three injuries — and they were minor," he said. "This is the first time we've had to deal with something like this."

Kilpatrick said Buckley and other staff members were devastated by the death and injury suffered by their fellow employees.

"They were a close-knit bunch," he said. "I told Carol that this could happen with any large animal. I had a friend of mine that got killed by a cow. It's just one of those things that you don't expect to happen, but it does."

Contributing: Alligood reports daily for The Tennessean in Nashville.

Posted 7/21/2006 10:04 PM ET