The most recent medical assessment of Lucy the elephant at the Edmonton Valley Zoo continues to recommend she not travel — either short or long distances.
The check-up was conducted by two veterinarians from ProGenY, a company from Germany that specializes in exotic species.
“An annual, independent assessment is required by Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums (CAZA) in order to maintain Lucy in Edmonton as a single elephant,” said a statement from the City of Edmonton. “She has been assessed yearly by outside experts for more than a decade.”
A bright spot in the report is that Lucy’s new diet, implemented a year ago, is working.
“She’s lost quite a bit of weight — 1,375 pounds to be exact — over the last year, which is substantial,” Gary Dewar, the director of the Edmonton Valley Zoo, said on Wednesday. “So they observed notable improvements in her overall.”
“Over the years, we knew that Lucy was overweight and we’d been trying to get her to lose weight for many years,” said MJ Limoges, a veterinarian at the Edmonton Valley Zoo. “And we’ve made some changes to her diet over the years — tried different things.
“And last year, when the team was here to evaluate her and they found a uterine tumour, they recommended some changes to her diet.”
Lucy is now having fewer snacks, drinking coconut water and consuming more tree boughs and less hay.
The exam also found the 48-year-old Asian elephant’s uterine tumours have “reduced quite dramatically,” said Dewar.
“Lucy’s caretakers — and everyone — we’re very happy about the fact that this vaccine — this hormone therapy for the tumour — which we were hoping would work, is actually working,” said Limoges.
“The hormone therapy, the dietary changes, the decrease in the tumour have all resulted in weight loss and she just seems to be feeling better.”
Lucy was brought to the Edmonton Valley Zoo in 1977 as a two-year-old orphaned elephant.
She has lived the entirety of her life since then in Edmonton, though not without controversy. For years, animal rights activists have argued she should be transported to an elephant sanctuary in a warmer climate.
The medical assessment found Lucy continues to have breathing issues and recommended she not move.
“(It’s) disappointing,” said Dewar. “I think many of us were holding hope that maybe this respiratory issue would improve.
“Clearly, a warmer climate would be better for her. But the notion that she would be embraced by a herd would remain to be seen.”
Dewar said Lucy did not get along with the other elephant which used to be at the Edmonton Valley Zoo, nor the one they previously attempted to breed her with in Calgary.
In addition to the health risks, the veterinarians say given her advanced age, she would struggle to adapt to a new environment.
Debbie Metzler, the director of captive animal welfare at PETA, disagrees with the zoo’s decision to keep Lucy in Edmonton.
Due to Lucy’s medical improvements, Metzler said “there may still be some hope for her to get to spend her golden years roaming hundreds of acres in the warm sun alongside other elephants.”
“The conclusion that she’s still not fit to move from the Edmonton Valley Zoo just adds to its litany of excuses from over the last decade or so as to why it wouldn’t give this suffering elephant a decent retirement,” she added.
“She’s living in a lonely, cold environment, and she could have been moved so, so long ago. But this roadside zoo has just failed her time and again.”
The report also said the zoo has decided not to sedate Lucy for any medical treatments over the last year, noting even mild, short-term sedation poses serious risks to her well-being.
The City of Edmonton said it has allocated funding to improve Lucy’s living conditions, including new flooring in her enclosure, additional cameras and the addition of an elephant trunk rest system.
Lucy also has new large rocks for enrichment in her yard and an automatic hay feeder.
“PETA hopes that Lucy’s health continues to improve to a point that she’s able to get out of this lonely hell she’s been living in at the Edmonton Valley Zoo,” said Metzler.
The zoo started reducing Lucy’s public appearances back in 2020, calling it a winding down into retirement.
“It’s basically letting her decide what her days are going to be comprised of,” Dewar explained. “She decides if she wants to go on a walk when she wants to go on a walk, (and) where she wants to go on a walk.”
On Wednesday, Lucy walked through the closed zoo, eating grass along the way, throwing dirt on her own back and rubbing up against a big tree that she has clearly used as a scratching post for decades.
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