Fat Animals Are Cute
Maggie, the overweight elephant at the Alaska Zoo, hates her treadmill:
"'She has two feet on the treadmill and has touched a third one on it,' zoo director Pat Lampi said on Tuesday... Lampi said he wouldn't be surprised if it took a year or more to get Maggie actually walking on the treadmill."
Maggie's right: treadmills suck. I'm sure she'd love an elephantine elliptical trainer, though. Those are awesome!
"'She has two feet on the treadmill and has touched a third one on it,' zoo director Pat Lampi said on Tuesday... Lampi said he wouldn't be surprised if it took a year or more to get Maggie actually walking on the treadmill."
Maggie's right: treadmills suck. I'm sure she'd love an elephantine elliptical trainer, though. Those are awesome!
3 Comments:
I think the elephant would be better served to exercise when she wants, by giving her more room in her home area to walk around at will.
second exercise is good for everyone but to force it on an animal that doesn't want to use a treadmill, is abuse. give her more room ro move around normally like she would in the wild.
second how in the world do they know she is overweight? do they think she needs to eat less hay? how many caloires are in hay?
RR
Poor Animal! First she's put into a cage and then they want to put her on something that upsets her balance. Why the torture? No, she's not having any fun. Fuck them.
All, they did give her more room to walk aroud! Here's another article:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060520/NEWS02/605200301/1029
They also made changes such as making her search for treats, varying her feeding styles, etc. (collectively, activities of this type are known as Enrichment in some zoos.)
She's lost over 1000lbs!
The elephants eat more than just hay, and it depends on how much hay you eat. Elephant proportions of hay, in this case.
I don't think they are forcing her to use the treadmill, from the article, it seemed they were introducing it to her slowly, at her own pace. It is entirely possible that if/when she is used to it, it can improve her quality of life in the zoo because she will have a different activity to engage in. Horses, some show dogs, and other animals use treadmills too.
Keep in mind, she made it to the zoo rather than being 'culled' from a wild herd. (Culled = killed due to overpopulation.) All in all, given the alternatives, I think it isn't so bad. She was basically rescued and put in a zoo rather than being killed, and the zoo is working to improve her quality of life at the zoo.
In an ideal world, perhaps it would be different, but this world is not ideal and so we do the best we can.
Michele
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