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I am deeply shocked by the news I received regarding the plight of Maggie in the Alaska Zoo.
How can so-called human beings maintain an African elephant in such awful living conditions? Elephants are social animals, very sensitive and unable to stay in captivity. In the wild they love to communicate a lot between themselves, they are used to walking great distances and they spend many hours a day foraging.
How can Maggie develop normal behavior living alone, standing on unheated concrete, deprived of natural sunlight because she has to stay confined in a house without fresh air during the five months of winter? The conditions of the zoo are slowly sentencing her to death.
I urge Pat Lampi, the Alaska Zoo director, to accept Maggie's transfer to the sanctuaries that offered to welcome her. This will not cost the zoo anything and my foundation is ready to give financial support to this operation. In such a place, she will be able to integrate with a herd, she will have a more suitable external temperature, she will have a bath with others, and she will walk on the grass or in the muddy ground for the rest of her life!
Never forget she has been caught in Africa, her group has been killed. She didn't commit any crime. Please release her.
I rely on you. Don't let me down.
Brigitte Bardot / Paris, France
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