Misha's sad story
If you ask the folks at California's Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Misha lived a rather charmed life.
After all, what kid hasn't dreamed of living in an amusement park?
Of course, Misha wasn't a cotton candy-loving child but an African elephant, who lived most of her life in the shadow of several super-fast, steel-track roller coasters. And although she was often bullied by the other animals in the thrill park's elephant exhibit, there wasn't enough room in the limited enclosure for her to run away. Oh yeah -- and she had an 8-inch abscess in her jaw that took four years to heal and often got infected.
Misha died last week at Utah's Hogle Zoo at the relatively young age of 27. Within three days, we were able to document quite a few of the more tragic details of her life in the Salt Lake Tribune.
How were we able to tell Misha's sad story so fast? Well, as it turns out, Six Flags was briefly owned by the City of Vallejo, Calif. -- which means her veterinary records were subject to the California Public Records Act.
Astute to this fact, the non-profit In Defense of Animals procured the vet records of Misha and several other members of the Six Flags herd a few years back -- which meant that when The Tribune came looking last week, the records were easily to obtain.
-mdl
After all, what kid hasn't dreamed of living in an amusement park?
Of course, Misha wasn't a cotton candy-loving child but an African elephant, who lived most of her life in the shadow of several super-fast, steel-track roller coasters. And although she was often bullied by the other animals in the thrill park's elephant exhibit, there wasn't enough room in the limited enclosure for her to run away. Oh yeah -- and she had an 8-inch abscess in her jaw that took four years to heal and often got infected.
Misha died last week at Utah's Hogle Zoo at the relatively young age of 27. Within three days, we were able to document quite a few of the more tragic details of her life in the Salt Lake Tribune.
How were we able to tell Misha's sad story so fast? Well, as it turns out, Six Flags was briefly owned by the City of Vallejo, Calif. -- which means her veterinary records were subject to the California Public Records Act.
Astute to this fact, the non-profit In Defense of Animals procured the vet records of Misha and several other members of the Six Flags herd a few years back -- which meant that when The Tribune came looking last week, the records were easily to obtain.
-mdl
Labels: open records, zoo
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