Known as Little Mac, an Indian elephant who was brought to the Santa Barbara Zoo in 1972, was euthanised after its deteriorating health. At 48 years of age, Little Mac almost spent her entire life at the zoo after she was brought in there from Mysore.
Little Mac was brought to the zoo, with another female elephant, Sujata, who was euthanised last year following health-related complication, she aged 47. Both the elephants were brought from India as part of an exchange programme.
According to Time, Little Mac was named by Herb Peterson, the owner of several local McDonald’s restaurants who paid for the airline flight. At the time she was a 1½-year-old, 4-foot-tall apparent orphan.
Little Mac elephant was suffering from age-related issues for quite a long time now. The elephant had been suffering from chronic problems with her teeth and arthritis in her leg among other medical complication.
Vice president of the Animal Care and health at the Santa Barabara Zoo, Julie Barnes said, 'She continued to decline in spite of our best efforts, especially in the past two weeks. We had exhausted the medical options available that would allow her to have a good quality of life. It was time to let her go'.
The news of Little Mac euthanised was shared by Santa Barbara Zoo through its social media accounts on various platforms. Santa Barabara Zoo tweeted, 'Last night we said goodbye to our 48-year-old elephant, Little Mac. After announcing she was on hospice care earlier this week, the decision was made to humanely euthanize her yesterday evening.' She was the only elephant at the Santa Barabara Zoo.
Reacting to the news, Twitter users mourned the death of Little Mac.
