Victory for Maggie the Elephant!

Great news, gang! Maggie the elephant, who has been living at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, is finally being sent to the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary in California!

You may remember that Maggie is a 27-year-old African elephant who has been living all alone at the zoo since 1997, which was when her only companion, Annabelle, an Asian elephant, died. PETA has been trying to convince the zoo to do what was best for Maggie and send her to a sanctuary in a much warmer part of the country. After all, elephants don't belong in the snow!

Because the climate in Alaska is very different from where Maggie's supposed to be—in Africa—it is often too cold for Maggie to be outside, so she spends most of her time alone in a barren concrete room. In the wild, elephants will roam for miles a day, but Maggie is unable to get the exercise she so desperately needs. Maggie's health has been failing; in fact, earlier this year she collapsed twice!

But now those days are over. Maggie will soon be headed for the warm California sunshine! At PAWS' 2,300 acre sanctuary, she'll be able to spend her time doing whatever she darn well pleases. She'll be free to roam through natural habitat, play in a lake, hang with other elephants, and munch on fresh vegetation to her heart's content.

If all goes according to plan, Maggie should be relocated to PAWS by winter, so thank you, PETA Kids, for all the letters and pictures you sent to zoo officials. You've truly helped make life better for Maggie!