LOS ANGELES : Report Avoids Blaming Zoo for Elephant’s Death

The death of an African bull elephant might have been prevented if Los Angeles Zoo officials had more carefully watched the sedated creature as they prepared to move him to a Mexican zoo, a report said.

“The ultimate outcome was a terrible tragedy that could have possibly been avoided but could not have been foreseen at any stage in the process,” said Dr. Donald Paglia, a UCLA pathologist and member of the commission that wrote the 67-page report.

Hannibal, an aggressive, five-ton bull elephant, died March 20 after being sedated and spending the night kneeling in a shipping crate. He knelt down in the crate as handlers prepared to ship him to a zoo in Toluca, Mexico--where he would have had more space to live--and resisted efforts to get him into another position.

Paglia said the 16-year-old animal also might have died if he had been moved without being given sedatives. The panel avoided blaming zoo officials because the events that led to Hannibal’s death could have turned out differently, he added.