Mali has a second chance at life

MANILA, Philippines - Imagine, if you can, a youngster, shoved into a transport crate and shipped to a strange and frightening place, never to see her family or home ever again. But no alert is ever issued, no reward for her safe return offered. This is because the victim is an elephant, Mali, the lone elephant at the Manila Zoo. This nursing baby was taken from Sri Lanka in 1974 and has spent the intervening decades in a small, concrete pen. Her days of running and playing in the lush Asian jungle with other elephants must feel like a distant dream. But that may all be about to change, thanks to the help of President Benigno Aquino III.

 Malacañang has issued a directive stating that Mali should be transferred to a sanctuary after an evaluation of her health. The president’s directive was in response to a letter, on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), from iconic musician Morrissey, who recently performed in Manila.

 For elephants, family is everything. Births are joyous celebrations. Deaths of loved ones are mourned. Youngsters are nurtured in close-knit family units and taught life skills such as how to use different kinds of leaves and mud to ward off sunburn and insect bites. Females stay with their families for life and males until their pre- or early teens. When Mali was taken, she was just learning how to swim, take baths and find her own food. 

 Try to imagine living your whole life in a room the size of a bedroom, seeing the same four walls every day. You’d have no friends or companionship and nothing whatsoever to pass the time or provide you with comfort. You’d never get to leave. That’s exactly what life is like for Mali. 

 Elephants require vast areas in which to roam, and in the wild, they are constantly on the move. Yet the entire Manila Zoo measures only 0.055 square kilometers, and Mali’s enclosure is a tiny fraction of that. Being confined to such restricted environments takes a heavy toll on elephants. Captive elephants not only develop serious foot disorders and arthritis but also are deprived of everything that is natural and important to them, which is emotionally and mentally devastating.

 In a truly heartbreaking display of the effect that life in the Manila Zoo has had on Mali, she’s been observed walking to the edge of her pen and reaching out her foot in the hope of taking one more step. When she realizes that she has reached the end, Mali steps back and tries again … and again. Finally realizing that there is nowhere to go, a dejected Mali walks aimlessly around her enclosure, picking debris off the ground.

 Other times, she paces incessantly or merely stands in one spot with her trunk to the ground. It is painfully clear that she is profoundly despondent. Her keen mind is a great, blank slate that cannot be filled by anything at the Manila Zoo.

 Nor can her stomach. Asian elephants forage most of the day and eat a wide variety of plants. According to zoo records, Mali’s diet consists of about a half-dozen kinds of fruit, some grass and loaves of white bread.

 Mali is a mere shell of the magnificent being she’s meant to be. She is the only captive elephant in the Philippines, and she needs to be retired without delay. Fortunately, Mali’s luck seems to have turned. A sanctuary can offer her thousands of acres to roam, ponds to bathe in, fresh vegetation to eat, foraging opportunities and, perhaps most importantly, the company of many other elephants. Over the years, PETA has followed the progress of many elephants who have been transferred from various zoos and circuses to sanctuaries, and there is no doubt that a natural-habitat refuge has a profoundly positive impact on these animals. Hopefully we’ll soon be saying the same for Mali.

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Jason Baker is the director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia Pacific.