PETA pick up elephants' cause

SEATTLE, June 11 (UPI) -- Animal rights activists want a Seattle zoo where one elephant died to give up three others, while lauding an Alaska zoo for deciding to give up its pachyderm.

Hansa the elephant was found Friday morning at Woodland Park Zoo where it was born six years ago. A necropsy has been performed, but zoo officials had not released a cause of death.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the zoo's three remaining elephants -- Chai, 28, Bamboo, 40 and Watoto, 38 -- sent to a sanctuary, KING-TV reported Monday.

"We hope that Hansa's death is a wake-up call for Woodland Park Zoo to retire its remaining elephants to a sanctuary before it's too late for them too," said PETA captive exotic animal specialist Lisa Wathne.

Meanwhile, PETA has sent a letter to the Alaska Zoo's board of directors congratulating it for deciding to transfer Maggie, the Anchorage zoo's lone elephant, to a more elephant-friendly location. The group has offered both its expertise and $10,000 toward Maggie's long-term care.

Maggie arrived at the zoo from South Africa in 1983 as a baby and has been its only elephant since 1997.