The belief that zoos are beneficial because they fight extinction is common.
If they’re providing animals with nearly natural environments and meeting their needs,
then it’s hard to argue against the benefits of zoos.
However, if the zoo is not able to give the animals what they need, the animals will in
turn lead a sad, lonely, and depressed life.
The case of Hanako the saddest elephant is well documented.
Hanako the elephant has been living in a concrete cell for 61 years.
And now people are saying that's enough.
At 68 years old, Hanako is the oldest elephant in Japan.
She's spent the past six decades at Tokyo's Inokashira Park Zoo, where she lives alone
in a barren enclosure.
There's no grass or trees - only concrete floors and walls.
It's unclear when she last saw another elephant.
And her feet had never touched grass or soil.
One recent visitor described her home as,” one of the cruelest, most archaic zoos in
the modern world”.
“Totally alone in a small, barren, cement in enclosure with absolutely no comfort or
stimulation provided.
She just stood there almost lifeless-like a figurine”, Ulara Nakagawa wrote
A video from 2013 shows the elderly elephant swaying back and forth as she plays with a
piece of robe or tubing, one of the only enrichments available in her tiny pen.
According to the Japan Times, Hanako was born in Thailand in 1947 and shipped to Japan's
Ueno Zoo at just 2 years old.
She was there to replace the zoo's previous elephants, who had been starved to death during
World War II under orders from the Tokyo governor.
A few years later, she was transferred to Inokashira, where she's lived ever since.
She lost most of her teeth decades ago, and currently suffers from digestive issues.
As a result of her long life of mistreatment, Hanako has developed something of a violent
streak.
She trampled a man who entered her enclosure in 1956, according to the Japan Times.
and, later, a zookeeper, and was kept in chains for many years.
And "with her increasing age she has become more temperamental," the outlet reported.
A 2011 article by national paper Asahi Shimbun says that Hanako had flipped a keeper, threw
a veterinarian and chased a staffer in the previous five years.
Mikio Murofushi, the leader of Hanako's care team, said at the time that she was sure the
elephant's aggression wasn't an accident.
"A pure accident is impossible in the case of an elephant," Murofushi said.
"An elephant is extremely intelligent and acts cognitively."
Yet despite that intelligence, Hanako is still locked in her tiny concrete cell.
In 2016 a visitor of the Inokashira zoo expressed her dissatisfaction with the unjust conditions
imposed on animals at this zoo, already infamous for its poor living conditions.
The visitor called this another cruelty in our modern world, Ulara Nakagawa, the visitor,
said that Hanako looked almost dead, just like a statue.
And now people have had enough.
A petition calling for Hanako to be released to a sanctuary or cared for properly had garnered
several thousand supporters, and asks that the elderly elephant receive medical attention,
access to a pool and - after so many years - the ability to interact with others of her
kind.
While the elephant is now entering her twilight years, people around the world are hopeful
that she can finally find some peace.
But as so few elephant sanctuaries have connections to Japan, it's unclear from what corner help
could come.
"I'm hoping somewhere out there is some justice for Hanako and other captive elephants kept
in such horrendous, unacceptable conditions," Nakagawa wrote.
However, the authorities didn't let the old elephant be set free.
They met with an expert called Carol Buckley, who promised to improve her living conditions
and take care well.
Nevertheless, they were too late.
In June 2016, Hanako was found on the ground by the zookeepers.
And they tried to help her up.
As elephant’s diaphragm, and chest get pressed when they fall down, her being on the ground
would cause her to suffocate.
However, the bad news followed shortly after, Hanako had died.
She was 69 years old.
Elephants are naturally supposed to lead a social life alongside their families.
However, Hanako was deprived of all emotional connections for the entirety of her sad life.
She was becoming aggressive because of the pain of being isolated.
Goodbye Hanako.
We hope that you feel happier and more peaceful away from cruel mankind.
The Asian elephant is classified as Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation
of Nature (IUCN).
Its population has declined by an estimated 50 percent over the past 75 years, and there
are an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 Asian elephants left in the wild.
In general, the Asian elephant is smaller than the African bush elephant and has the
highest body point on the head.
The back is convex or level.
The ears are small with dorsal borders folded laterally.
It has up to 20 pairs of ribs and 34 caudal vertebrae.
The feet have more nail-like structures than those of African elephants—five on each
forefoot, and four on each hind foot.
The forehead has two hemispherical bulges, unlike the flat front of the African elephants.