KALLIE Kallie was just a year old when she was taken from her home in Zimbabwe in 1983, where she watched her entire family get shot and killed in a mass culling.    Along with dozens of other orphaned baby elephants, she was shipped to the United States where she became the property of an eccentric millionaire, Arthur Jones, founder of the Nautilus exercise equipment company.     Arthur Jones had a 600-acre property named "Jumbo Lair" where he kept 85 elephants, 600 crocodiles, 500 snakes, three rhinos and one gorilla.  At Jumbo Lair, the baby elephant later known as Kallie was named "June."   In 1984, Bette joined her at Jumbo Lair.    It is reported that 10 elephants died at Jumbo Lair between 1984 and 1987 from transport stress, wounds and diseases. 37 elephants were sold to zoos and circuses during that time period. Bette was sold to the Meeks company in 1986, but June/Kallie would stay at Jumbo Lair until 1989, when Arthur Jones and his wife divorced and sold off all the animals.  June/Kallie and two other elephants, Willie and Dancer, were sold to "Four Bear," a private company in Detroit.      At the Four Bear company, June/Kallie, Dancer and Willie were allegedly terribly abused.  It was reported that Dancer had been chained in the barn for over a year and was covered with wounds and scars from repeated pitchfork stabbings.  All three elephants were badly malnourished and were even the subject of a later Reader's Digest article on animal abuse.         Just a year later,  all three elephants were sold again to another company, "Zoomotion," where June's name was changed to Kallie.  Zoomotion was owned by New Hampshire businessman Al Jones, who leased the elephants to animal trainer Bret Bronson.  Bronson traveled around the country with Kallie, Willie, Dancer and a fourth African elephant named Tonya, exhibiting them at country fairs and private businesses and renting them out for commercials and movies including "12 Monkeys."  During one performance at  a high school circus, Tonya knocked down her trainer during an act, opened a door with her trunk, and fled the building. She was caught a quarter mile away from the circus.      In 1999, Al Jones decided to sell Dancer, Willie and Kallie.  He moved Tonya back to New Hampshire, where he hoped to start an animal park.   Bronson tried to raise $50,000, the asking price for the three elephants, but failed to do so.  Dancer was retired to the Black Beauty Ranch in Tyler, Texas and Willie was sold to Disney's Animal Kingdom.  Kallie was sold to T&T Entertainment, where she rejoined Bette, and both were put to work giving rides at the Philadelphia Zoo during the summer months. In April 2004, the Philadelphia Zoo purchased both Kallie and Bette, and crammed them into the quarter-acre exhibit and 1,800 sq. ft. barn which already housed two elephants, the then 47-year-old Petal and 40-year-old Dulary.

At the Philadelphia Zoo, Kallie, like the other elephants who have lived there, spends most of her time inside the cement barn, often chained.  When outside, she sometimes displays agitated behavior, as captured in this video.     According to Philadelphia Zoo sources, Kallie is the largest animal in the zoo's "collection" and eats approximately 160 pounds of hay a day costing $21.28 per day.  The Philly Zoo spends another $3.72 a day on elephant pellets and a little produce for a total cost of $25.00 per day.  (Click here for source).   Please visit this link to see what the elephants eat at a sanctuary.     Kallie is easily recognizable by her floppy right ear.  She is often mistaken for the oldest elephant, even when Petal was alive, because of her aged appearance.   She appears to be an elephant who has endured many things.   In October of 2005, the Philadelphia Zoo announced it was closing the elephant exhibit and would be finding new homes for the elephants.  At first, all three African elephants were supposed to be sent to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, which had planned a major explansion.  Those plans fell through and in the spring of 2007, the Philadelphia Zoo was looking for another place to send Kallie, Bette and Petal (Dulary moved to The Elephant Sanctuary in May 2007, where she is thriving.)    The wonderful Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in Galt, California, (photo, left) offered to provide a lifetime home to all three elephants at no charge.   Mara, another African elephant who had been orphaned in Zimbabwe around the same time as Kallie, and had lived at the Jumbo Lair with Kallie back in the 1980's, moved to PAWS back in 1989 when Arthur Jones sold his elephants after his divorce.    Ten other former zoo and circus elephants also live at PAWS, enjoying free access to hundreds of acres of lush rolling hills, lakes, and natural foliage.    Sadly, instead of allowing the elephants to move to PAWS, the Philadelphia Zoo decided to send them to a proposed breeding facility outside of Pittsburgh which hadn't even been built yet.   Although she had the chance to move to PAWS and spend the rest of her years enjoying free access to hundreds of lush acres, Petal died in June 2008 in the same cement barn where she had lived for over 50 years.    As of fall 2008, the breeding facility is in the final stages of Phase I construction, which includes a 10,000 sq. ft. cement barn. Because none of the perimeter fencing at the breeding facility is elephant-safe, all elephants confined at the breeding facility will spend most of their time inside the cement barn.     Pittsburgh Zoo director Barbara Baker has stated that both Kallie and Bette will be forcibly bred; first with Jackson, a bull elephant, and if that breeding is unsuccessful, they will be artificially inseminated.   It is most likely neither Kallie nor Bette will successfully breed with Jackson, so they will be subjected to the highly invasive procedure some call "rape with a needle" of artificial insemination.  See photos of the procedure (notice the chains and bullhooks), below.     Sources (more coming soon):  "Elephants have left Mendon for the South," Sincola, Chris, Worcester Telegram and Gazette, February 24, 1999