When Gita, the L.A. Zoo's beloved 48-year-old Asian elephant, died in June, zoo officials said that as recently as the day before she had appeared to be doing well and had healed from surgery on her left front foot.
But the zoo's medical records from the two months leading up to Gita's death paint a picture of an animal battling a number of ailments. Gita was suffering from several abscesses on her body -- probably from leaning against the bars of her barn -- that continued to grow even as veterinarians treated them. The sole of her right front foot had developed a sore that had to be debrided and covered with a protective boot. And in the days before her death, when the zoo's staff tried to administer antibiotics intravenously to her left foot, the usually placid and accommodating elephant was "antsy" one day and "agitated" another, making treatment impossible.
A complete necropsy on Gita is expected in the next couple of weeks, according to an official of the lab performing the animal pathology.
The medical records were obtained by the animal rights group In Defense of Animals through the California Public Records Act. Catherine Doyle, a member of the group, gave a copy of the records to The Times.
"Over and over again, the zoo kept saying Gita is fine when in fact the medical records show the animal was suffering daily," Doyle said. "There were clear indications she was trying to get her weight off her front feet, and the Los Angeles Zoo was negligent in monitoring her in order to avoid the situation that did happen."
Gita was found in her enclosure, with her back legs tucked under her and her front legs outstretched, about 5 a.m. June 10. The 8,000-pound animal died at 9:40 a.m. after toxins from her muscles flooded her system and caused vascular distress, zoo officials said.
Mel Richardson, a former zoo veterinarian now in private practice in Paradise, Calif., near Chico, reviewed the records for the animal rights group, which, he said, paid him for his time and medical opinion.
"Before I got to the end of those records, I thought, 'Why don't they put her down?' They had to see she was doing badly," Richardson said.
But zoo Director John Lewis asserted that Gita's health had not appeared grim. "Yes, she had some things going on, but none was causing great alarm," said Lewis, who said Gita was still taking regular walks around the zoo in the days before she died.
