Pet, the oldest Asian elephant at the Oregon Zoo was euthanized Wednesday after the medicine that handlers had been administering was no longer effectively treating complications stemming from a foot injury.
The female elephant took up residence at the Oregon Zoo shortly after her arrival from Thailand. She has been at the zoo since 1959, and the zoo officially acquired her in 1962. She gave birth to six calves during her time at the zoo, including her daughter Sung-Surin, who remains at the zoo.
Following Pet’s death an exhibit was set up by zoo staff, volunteers and visitors to honor her. They made paper lanterns to hang in the memorial and wrote personalized messages on them; the use of lanterns is traditional in Thai funerals.
Mike Keele the zoo’s deputy director, and a former elephant keeper, worked directly with Pet for five years has been very pleased with the public response to Pet’s death.
“It seems like Portlanders have a lot of love for animals,” he said. “Pet always seemed to be a favorite, and there are many many lanterns going up in her memory.”
Keele said that he still visited Pet frequently even after he changed jobs, and that she still greeted him the same way she did when he worked with her on a daily basis.
“I would be talking to her and she would position herself so that I was behind her ear, so that I would scratch it,” he said.
In an e-mail to the zoo’s staff and volunteers Keele explained Pet’s condition, and detailed how the staff came to the decision that Pet needed to be put down.
“This is one of the toughest parts of our jobs,” he wrote. “We should all take solace in knowing that we did our best for her and, in her memory, we should always strive to do better.”