http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/25/elephant25.TMP

Tinkerbelle the elephant dies
Patricia Yollin, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, March 25, 2005

Tinkerbelle, a 39-year-old Asian elephant who moved from the San Francisco Zoo to a sanctuary in the Sierra foothills last November, was euthanized on Thursday afternoon.

She had collapsed earlier in the day and her condition, zoo officials said, boiled down to a "quality of life" issue.

The 8,000-pound pachyderm, who was born in Thailand and moved to San Francisco when she was 2 years old, had a degenerative joint disease. Complications with her feet hastened her decline, as well as being unable to easily move around.

After a move that had required months of training to accomplish, she settled into a 2,300-acre sanctuary run by the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in the Calaveras County town of San Andreas.

"We were saddened to hear that Tinkerbelle had taken a turn for the worse," said Bob Jenkins, director of animal care and conservation at the zoo. "PAWS worked admirably to care for Tinkerbelle, and the loss is profound, affecting both our staffs who loved and cared for her all her life."

Tinkerbelle's relocation, on Nov. 28, followed nine months of bile-filled debate over whether she and Lulu, an African elephant, should remain at the zoo, move to another zoo or go to a sanctuary.

The uproar resulted from the death of two other elephants -- Calle and Maybelle -- at the zoo last spring.

The controversy attracted national attention and eventually involved animal rights activists, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, which threatened to remove the zoo's accreditation for defying its recommendation to relocate the two pachyderms to another zoo.

Lulu, the zoo's last remaining elephant, moved to PAWS on March 10.

Tinkerbelle had received frequent visits from San Francisco zoo staff in San Andreas and was keeping company with its three other Asian elephants -- Annie, Rebecca and Minnie.

Her keepers at the zoo had fondly described Tinkerbelle as a "drama queen" who loved to make noise, bang things around and enthusiastically destroy her toys.

(Tinkerbelle is closest to the blue ball)