Tell the Oklahoma City Zoo to send Bamboo to a Sanctuary

After years of public protest, Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo finally closed their elephant exhibit last year. Animal welfare advocates rejoiced at this news and called on the zoo to send its two elephants, Chai and Bamboo, to a sanctuary. Instead, they were transferred to the Oklahoma City Zoo where things got even worse. 

Chai, 37, died this past January from emaciation and a systemic blood infection. The zoo claimed that there were no warning signs of Chai's illness leading up to her tragic death, but records recently released under a FOIA request tell a different story. Apparently the poor elephant had suffered from weight loss, skin lesions, and other health problems - all signs of her deteriorating health - months before she died.

And now, despite the Oklahoma City Zoo's public statements, it looks like Bamboo's health is also in jeaopardy. Records show that the 49-year-old elephant has dropped from weighing 8,600 pounds in May 2015 to just 7,420 pounds on July 1, 2016.

Bamboo is not thriving in her new home. She was expected to become the matriarch of the Oklahoma City Zoo's existing elephant herd, but has gotten into repeated fights with the other elephants. She has been biten on the tail at least three times, with one wound considered an "amputation" that took months to heal. Just this past April, another female elephant chased and pushed Bamboo, leaving a six-inch scrape on her trunk.

As a result of the conflict between Bamboo and the other elephants, she has been separated from the other elephants overnight at least 28 times over the course of three months.

Bamboo has gone through enough. She should be allowed to live out her remaining years in peace. Please sign this petition demanding that the Oklahoma City Zoo retire Bamboo to a sanctuary.  Please follow Oklahoma Friends of Elephants (OFE) on Facebook.