ROMAIA - Bucharest Zoo, The Pachyderm’s death

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The Pachyderm’s death, a combination of cruelty and incompetence.
Gaya, the Elephant, mangled by dogs

Mihnea–Petru Parvu
20 March 2007


Former and present employees of Bucharest Zoo say that Gaya was chased and bitten by Police dogs (German shepherds) that were trying to force her to enter the winter shelter (paddock). Trying to escape, Gaya slipped and broke her leg. The administrators were not able to lift her up even with the crane’s help. She died suffering horribly the day after the accident. Using a chainsaw, they cut Gaya in chunks of 100 kilos, they wrapped her in plastic bags and they incinerated the 48 years old elephant, weighing four tones. Her head stays up until now in a water barrel.

They sent the dogs after her. They chased and harassed her without pity. The dogs bit her trunk and her legs. When she got tired, the elephant fell on one side. Her own weight proved to be fatal. She broke her leg and was not able to stand up anymore. They brought a crane, but even then, they were not able to lift her up. She had arthritis and could not stand up. Full of blood, her crying could break your heart. In order to cover the accident, the administration brought black fabric and covered the area in which she lived almost her entire life. She survived until the next day. After her death, they had her cut in big chunks, kept her head in a water barrel and the rest was taken to the Animals’ Cemetery where she was incinerated. This was Gaya’s end, the dearest animals of all at Baneasa Zoo. The statements belong to former and present Baneasa Zoo employees. On October 22nd 2006, the news of Gaya’s death, the only living elephant in a Romanian Zoo, made headlines. The newspapers took over and found out more about her death. People believed she died of old age. At 48 years old she was an example of longevity, the
life span of an elephant in captivity being 40 years and 60 years for those enjoying freedom. It seemed a normal death. Brought from Rostock in 1969, almost blind, she was suffering from arthritis and she had only a couple of teeth left. In spite of all this, she had more days to live and a lot of children could have enjoyed her presence at Baneasa Zoo. But according to former and present Zoo employees, the truth is a lot different. They told us that the elephant was chased and bitten by police dogs belonging to a Police base located nearby. The dogs had been brought in by the director of this facility, Anca Oprea. The idea of this cruel endeavor was that the dogs would make Gaya enter the winter facility.

Incompetence or cruelty?

For reasons easy to understand, we won’t mention the names of all those who witnessed the last 24 hours of Gaya’s life. One day, before Gaya’s death, the 21st of October 2006, the veterinarian Codrut Visoiu, along with the chief of that department, George Albu, made the decision to bring police dogs inside in order to make Gaya enter the winter shelter. They let Anca Oprea know about their intentions. One of the witnesses recalls the director agreed with their decisions. The witness also says that she even found a reason for bringing the dogs in: vaccination. The dogs had been brought before the enclosed area, they were free to go inside and they started to bite Gaya’s trunk. Being afraid, she tried to run away, she fell with her leg under her body and broke it. “When the “specialists” saw the fallen elephant hurt and full of blood, they got scared and they took the dogs out”, the employee says remembering the tragic moments he had to witness. A second witness is backing up the statement: “They bit her trunk and her legs. The elephant got scared, slipped and broke her left leg from the back.” In the meantime, says a third witness, the dogs were jumping on her, biting. The director Anca Oprea denies any of these allegations: “None of this true!” Even though she refused any comments, Anca Oprea wanted to know the witnesses’ names. Those we talked to. She even threatened us: “You will give me those statements. You will write their names in the newspaper; otherwise, I will reserve my right to act accordingly”. In spite of her reticence, Anca Oprea acknowledged the fact that indeed; those police dogs had been brought in to force Gaya to enter the paddock (the winter shelter). She also says that this decision belongs to her: “ I talked to directors from different Zoos, those having similar pachyderms and I made the best decision I could. Her decision is even stranger as long there is a law that particularly prohibits the entrance of any other animal from the outside inside a Zoo; everybody is familiar with this law, from the ordinary animal caretakers to the vets and the director of this facility. Anca Oprea is a veterinarian, but she never worked as a vet, fact acknowledged by herself; she previously worked at the Otopeni International Airport, in the customs department. The tragedy of this incident, strongly denied by Anca Oprea, made us look for other witnesses. We found them and all, under the protection of anonymity, confirmed everything’s been previously said. According to our witnesses, after the elephant was bitten by dogs and bleeding, they brought a crane in the hope to lift her up. But all efforts failed. Then, the director Anca Oprea brought meters of black fabric and covered the fence to prevent curious eyes from seeing what was happening inside. She had the Zoo closed for two days in a row. One evening, Anca Oprea bought six blankets to cover the animal overnight. Gaya made it until the next day around 10.30-11. Three Zoo caretakers spent the night with her and the last moments of her life. Our sources indicate that Zoo employees received 500.000 lei each, distributed by Anca Oprea and aimed at making them keep silent about the tragic incident. The very next day, Zoo Baneasa held an important meeting. Doctors Codrut Visoiu and George Albu asked those who witnessed the tragedy to keep their mouths shut and told them that if they dared to say anything to the authorities or the media (the real story about Gaya’s death) they would be fired. Gaya was cut in big chunks and taken on her last trip to the Animals’ Cemetery: “Animals’ Heaven”. Butchered in pieces of one hundred kilos, perfectly wrapped in plastic bags, weighing more than 3.5 tones, the “Old lady” was incinerated for more than two days. The only part missing was her head. “They incinerated her here. It was a very tragic moment even for the employees. Most of us have known her since we were children. She had a horrible death and I think those from the Zoo performed an autopsy because when she was brought in here, she was already cut in pieces and wrapped hermetically. We tried to operate as fast as we could according to our hygiene procedures and it took us more than two days”. “Gaya’s ashes have been returned in a special urn to the Zoo and another one is here in a special place, in the cemetery”, says Laurentiu Neghina, theAnimals’ Heaven’s director.


Anca Oprea denies

In spite of all evidence, Anca Oprea sustains that the elephant died of old age, that all papers are Ok and that she was examined by specialists who saw nothing abnormal as far as her health was concerned. Still, there are a lot of unanswered questions. Nobody was allowed to film Gaya’s corpse. Everybody could have seen whether or not dogs had bitten her. The elephant left Zoo, but it got to the cemetery cut in pieces and wrapped in plastic bags. All evidence was removed.

The Policemen acknowledged the dogs’ presence, but deny any aggression.

We asked the Police a couple of questions related to the strange dog intrusion at Baneasa Zoo. Captain Marius Teodorescu, their spokesman, acknowledged their presence at the Zoo the day before Gaya’s death. “Having been solicited by the director Anca Oprea, the 21st of October 2006, five policemen with their dogs were part of the operation aimed at making Gaya enter the shelter. This action took place to prevent the elephant from getting sick due to cold temperatures outside and her advanced age. At all times, during our mission, the dogs were not in any contact with the elephant, Gaya’s death and the dogs’ presence at the Zoo being an unfortunate coincidence (…)”. Even though we have asked, the Police have never mentioned the department the five policemen came from, the grade and the function of the person in charge, how long they had stayed inside Zoo and whether the dogs were taken inside Gaya’s habitat.

Former deputy director of Baneasa Zoo: “Gaya was afraid of dogs!”

Former deputy director of Baneasa Zoo, engineer Horatiu Cernaianu, was very surprised when he heard that such methods were adopted by the current director, Anca Oprea, methods used to make the elephant go inside the winter shelter. Horatiu Cernaianu: “ I stopped working at Baneasa Zoo eight months ago and I refuse to believe that those were the methods used; we all know, from a former zoo technician, a very competent professional, Mircea Berindei, who worked for a long time at the Zoo, that in her youth, they used this barbarian method and ever since then Gaya was very stressed out every time she saw a dog, being very afraid of canines.

Romania libera:

How do you determine animals to go inside when they refuse to do so?
H.C.: Because we often faced this kind of behavior, the most efficient method was to put the food inside and this way, she was forced to go there and eat during a smaller or a bigger interval, when she was hungry. At that moment, we shut the door. The method gave good results every single time, without putting animal’s life in danger.




The head, “conserved” in water

Gaya’s corpse was transported to the Animals’ Cemetery, “Animals’ Heaven”, but not by this society, whom Baneasa Zoo had contracts with, but a tractor that belonged to the Zoo:” (…) they waited for the night to come, they put her in the tractor, driven by Spiru Burghelea and they brought the corpse to the Animals’ Cemetery (…). From there, the tractor went back with the animal’s head; following management’s orders, the head was put in a water bowl, close to the kitchen (…), says another witness. In the same note, another employee writes: “(…) there, the elephant was cut with a chainsaw and incinerated, keeping only the head, brought back at the Zoo and even now (newspaper’s note – it’s been five months since Gaya’s death), this head is being kept in a water barrel, between women’s change room and the kitchen, in a warehouse with a small window, open permanently, where all cats have access and the stench is overwhelming”. Anca Oprea acknowledged that the head never got to Animals’ Heaven, but she explained that she had an understanding with “Grigore Antipa” museum for keeping the head. She refused to show us Gaya’s head even though we suggested that we knew the place it was being kept. Place that, indeed, smells like a decaying corpse.

The elephant could have been stuffed

Dumitru Murariu, the director of The National History Museum “Grigore Antipa” in Bucharest, says he is stunned by the method used in this case. He cannot believe that the elephant’s head has been kept in water for the last five months, at the room temperature. Murariu recalls very well the series of events occurred that day.
“I was called by the Zoo director when Gaya died, it was on a Saturday, our researchers were not in Bucharest. When I called on Sunday, Anca Oprea told me that she already called the knacker’s trade and solved the problem. It is true that I was very surprised. We have an agreement that when their animals die, they shouldn’t be throwing them because they are exotic species and they could help us in our research. As to Gaya, she told me clearly on the phone that she solved the problem. We could not wait any longer for any skull. That doesn’t mean that if the skull really existed, we would no longer be interested in it. We had no idea that they have been keeping the skull for us, for the “Antipa” museum. We were interested in the skeleton as well as the skin. Gaya, the elephant, could have been stuffed.