Gladys Porter Zoo staff is mourning the loss of a 12-year-old giraffe that had to euthanize because it was suffering from medical complications with one of its limbs.
Lalo, as the giraffe was named, was “humanely euthanized” on Tuesday due to complications stemming from a leg injured the animal sustained in its youth, official said in a media release. “The injury had begun to significantly impact his life,” zoo officials stated.
Walter Dupree, mammal curator at Gladys Porter Zoo, on Wednesday said zoo staff sat down together to determine what was the best course of option for Lalo. Because they could see the giraffe was in pain and medications and other care the animal was receiving were no longer working, the only option left was to put Lalo down.
“It was very hard,” Dupree said in reference to the decision to euthanize Lalo.
Although a medication had been used to dull Lalo’s pain, “it just did not seem to be working well. We just saw a gradual decline,” Dupree said.
The loss of Lalo has affected zoo staff since they consider the animals as part of their extended family and have been working with them for many years.
“We are still mourning here,” Dupree said. “People I don’t think they understand that we spend more time with the animals than we do with our families and the commitment you make to them (is a lot).”
Although the giraffe exhibit ranks number three in the top exhibits at the zoo–behind primates and reptiles–Dupree said those who visit the giraffe exhibit are basically in awe as to getting the chance to feed them.
“If you would ever talk to 80 percent of our visitors that go to the giraffe feed, you can see it in their eyes, they start talking about how gentle they are, how they didn’t know they were so large and that it was the best experience they have ever had. For a zoo keeper like me that is what motivated me all these years is to see those kinds of responses,” Dupree said.
Lalo, who was born and raised at GPZ, was 11 months old when the giraffe suffered a fracture of a bone in its hind leg. Although the zoo’s veterinary team was able to repair the giraffe’s fracture, they encountered a major problem.
It appeared that the fracture may have occurred along one of the growth plates in the bone. Growth plates are areas of active growth located near the end of the bone. Although the fracture was repaired, it was unclear how severely the injury would affect him and the leg’s growth in the future, officials said.
Because of his injury, he had been carefully monitored by the zoo’s veterinary team and his keepers for the last three years, officials said.
Lalo’s injury was noticed by the public and so zoo officials had a signed posted at the giraffe exhibit explaining what had happened to the animal and that he was under observation.
The zoo now has eight giraffes. Although those eight might sense that Lalo is missing, they don’t know why, which isn’t unusual since animals from the zoo are sometimes loaned out to other zoos for breeding, Dupree said. “They aren’t really a tight group, but they probably know he’s not here. But I don’t know if they understand what happened and why he is no longer here,” Dupree said.
Deputy Director Colette Adams said, “Every day he was alive was a miracle. We wanted his last day to be a good one.”
