Gay the Asian Elephant Gets Fancy Red Designer Shoes!
Gay, the Asian elephant, has been suffering from very sore feet recently. For the past several months, keepers at the Paignton Zoo Environmental Park have been keeping a close eye on the 40-year-old elephant. Although she gets regular pedicures and antibiotic foot baths, Gay has been suffering from painful abscesses in both her front feet.
- » See also: On the Brink of Extinction: Call to Close Cruel and Inhumane Tiger Farms
- » Get EcoLocalizer by RSS or sign up by email.
Designer Shoes:
In order to make Gay as comfy as possible, a very special pair of red booties was made just for her. Australian-based company Aussie Dog, designs and manufactures the boots which are specially made for elephants with foot problems or for elephants that work in the field clearing debris and rubble.
Owner 
Joseph Parsons explains that elephant’s feet are “very vulnerable to damage from stones, nails, broken timber and glass.” If sharp objects are not quickly removed, the objects will “pump up” the foot, causing tremendous pain and in some cases, death.
The custom-made footwear is constructed out of durable material that will last for many years if properly maintained. The material is also breathable so the elephant’s foot doesn’t rise above the ambient temperature.
The making of the boots is a labor-intensive process. A template of each foot must be taken for a perfect fit. Since there are nearly 70 different pieces used in each shoe, it takes about one-and-a-half days to make each boot. Two people are required to manipulate the boot during the sewing process.
The fancy red booties will not only keep Gay’s feet nice and clean, but will enable her keepers to place dressings on her feet which will promote healing, help remove dead tissue and decrease the risk of infection.
These very special “shoemakers” at Aussie Dog manufacture the footwear because of their deep fondness for elephants and love and compassion for all animals. The company also makes toys for both domestic pets and wildlife.
In order to keep the elephant as comfortable as possible, softer surfaces of sand and rubber matting have also been installed in the elephant house at the zoo.
Asian Elephants
Asian elephants, Elephas maximus, are considered Endangered on the IUCN Red List. One single calf is born after a long 22-month-gestation period. Poaching, habitat loss, degradation and human-elephant conflicts all threaten the species.
Photos courtesy of Joe Parsons from Aussie Dog
Asian Elephant photo courtesy of Trisha M. Shears via Public Domain
Nice one http://www.aussiedog.com.au/
yeh, nice “chains” around the poor elephants neck
send them all to Sanctuaries that will give them their freedom to just be elephants and walk on soft grass….and be able to form their own family groups..no more controlling by stupid man….let them go…
[...] Gay the Asian Elephant Gets Fancy Red Designer Shoes! [...]
Well you have either the wrong picture, or she has the wrong boots on - or - you could have made a mistake in your headline, because I’m not colourblind, and The Boots appear Yellow and blue !
Or maybe I - or my PC - or the internet - has a touch of what “Lin” has, because, try as I might, I can see neither “chains” - nor even chains - nor even string, around the elephant’s neck. If only I could afford more beer !
Great idea though to “let them go” (with sore feet, to be “poached” for their tusks)
Hi Gerard,
Great guesses but none of the above! I am waiting for permission from the photographer to use the photos with the red booties. Thanks!
jsg
In an otherwise informative article, I deplore the flippant comment that “standing all day carrying that kind of weight would make anyone’s feet ache!” Would the writer have made the same unkind comment about a human being in continuous pain? I hope not.
I fear the writer has little understanding of the severity of the pain Gay and other elephants confined in unnatural, alien and artificial environments suffer. Paignton Zoo confesses on its website “Gay might have arthritis as she is less supple than before and we don’t see her lying down like we used to.” The zoo’s concession of 100 tonnes of sand and some rubber matting in the elephant house has probably come far too late for Gay. Why was her condition allowed to deteriorate to the extent it clearly has, according to your report, before the zoo put its hand in its pocket?
Captivity-induced foot and joint ailments are the number one killer of confined elephants. Remember Crumple? The 40 year old female Asian elephant at the notorious Blackpool Zoo, who was euthanased there on 1st March 2009 for chronic arthritis, just over a year after she was fitted with a boot for one of her front feet .
It’s about time the media took a long, hard look at what life in zoos inflicts on these beautiful creatures. Time that it started some serious, intelligent, investigative reporting to enlighten the public at large – the truth as distinct from the “spin”. Elephants are kept in zoos not for conservation, nor for education, but for entertainment. And Gay is paying the price.
Ms. Moore,
Thank you for your comment and point of view. Standing for hours at a time on injured feet, whether human or animal, must indeed be painful. The comment, not intended to be flippant, has been removed.
Jace – thank you so much for your enlightened response.
Zoos holding elephants must be challenged on a whole host of issues relating to the welfare of the elephants, and the public needs to be informed about the physical, emotional and psychological makeup of elephants before they can realise just how cruel captivity is – especially the invasive and misguided breeding, which does not contribute to front-line conservation, but attempts to produce “wow-factor-cute” calves, who will never see “the wild”, for public display.
Referring to post 4 above - Gerard, female Asian elephants, like Gay, do not grow ivory.
Aww… poor Gay! Chains on her leg… many chains on her neck!! This is zoo life!? Gay’s nails appear to need immediate attention, too.
Those “shoes” are an open admission that zoos cannot provide enough space of natural surfaces for elephants. Once the infections begin, it’s a very difficult task to manage foot care. Soon she will begin to lift one foot to ease the pain in that foot, then place that foot on the ground only to lift the other foot immediately. Pain meds will be prescribed … and in a few years, the meds will no longer offer relief. Gay’s appetite will decrease as her level of pain increases. She become nutritionally compromised, she will lose weight. She will waste away before your eyes.
This entire description played out with Clara, an Asian elephant at the St Louis Zoo in Missouri. Clara was wild-caught in the 1950’s, transferred to the U.S., and lived her 50+ years in confinement behind bars. on concrete floors, and various other non-natural surfaces. Once the popular star of elephant shows, Clara’s rear feet became infected in 2000, sandals were fashioned for her, and she was forced to wear them 24/7 for nearly 7 years.
Clara was euthanized on March 14, 2007 because her pain could not be relieved with medication. She lost a great deal of weight in her last two years and renal failure complicated her health issues.
We urged the zoo officials to consider sanctuary for Clara…but they were adamant that Clara was content where she was. Even though the exhibit was expanded to 1.2 acres in 1999, it was sub-divided into 3 fenced and hot-wired yards. The surface was hard-packed dirt over concrete. Yeah, they considered that an improvement.
Zoos, no matter how much they love the elephants, cannot provide the necessary components to insure good health, both physically and psychologically.
Gay should be moved to sanctuary before her feet complicate her life even further …. and before her life mirrors Clara’s life.
Midwest USA
BigFanx,
Thank you for your insight and sharing your story about Clara. Very sad indeed!