I hate that her life has to be marred like this, but I suppose they have to say something. Living to 72 proves NZP was doing unusually well all those years, and they just can't have the public thinking THAT. This is the first time I can remember NZP elephants even being mentioned by an activist group.
This article is starting to make me angry. It clearly echoes our fearless leader's policy of lying and assuming it will be believed. They claim to care and know so much about her, but this article reads like an obituary written many years ago to have all ready when she did die. The only "problem" is that she continued to live and live and live long after they assumed she would leave us. So little do they truly care that they didn't even bother to update their comments, which reflect NZP elephant life before a huge building project improved their lives immensely and before FOUR more elephants joined the herd! We seem to be fixed in a time well before those improvements, because Ambika allegedly lived her life in a small cage. Somehow she had Bozie as a companion--even though that didn't happen until after Elephant Trails was completed, the Elephant Trails they seem to know nothing about. They're also seemingly oblivious to the fact that three new cows joined the herd, giving Ambika exactly the kind of larger matriarchal herd they proscribe--plus this one even has a bull they all love, meaning Ambika was one of SEVEN in the herd. At least Born Free freely admits its agenda is to get rid of zoos and return wild animals to the wild before there is any chance someone might find them credible.
Absolutely ridiculous, slanted article. You're correct, that image is not of Ambika, it is Shanthi. With all their "expertise" and criticism they can't even identify the specific animal which they are so concerned about. Nor do they have their facts right about the current number of animals at the facility. They state she is survived by two others yet the zoo holds a total of 6 remaining animals (also noted by AmbikaFan). Smart choice to have an article written by a primate sanctuary director and a communications director, I'm sure they know a whole lot about elephants (looked into both their credentials and the answer is no). However, they are shining examples when it comes to being pretentious and incompetent.
