OK City’s baby elephant, Malee, dies
Malee, the 4 year old elephant at the Oklahoma City Zoo died On October 1, 2015 of Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV). May she rest in peace. Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants warned both Woodland Park Zoo and the Oklahoma City Zoo of the risk of EEHV to the two young elephants living at OCZ by moving Bamboo and Chai there. See page 4 of the OKC Zoo fact sheet.
Bamboo and Chai had been exposed to EEHV when Chai’s daughter, Hansa, died from it. Chai as well as the two elephants living at OCZ, Chandra and Ashe, were all exposed to the strain of herpes virus that killed Malee when at Dickerson Park Zoo. At Dickerson Park Zoo 5 elephants contracted EEHV and only Chandra survived. While Malee did not die from the same strain of EEHV as Hansa, there is a very real risk that Aschara, the surviving calf, may succumb to it.
EEHV is a virus which causes horrifically painful, and often fatal hemorrhaging of the vital organs in young Asian elephants. Once again the zoo industry has selfishly taken a risk with this precious young calf’s life in their obsessive desire to breed elephants into zoo confinement. Breeding elephants at the Oklahoma City Zoo – and at all zoos – must end immediately. RIP Malee.
http://www.koco.com/news/4yearold-elephant-dies-at-okc-zoo/35596804