Carl's Towing gives elephant a lift
Saturday, February 17, 2007 11:49 PM PST
By Leila Summers
Printable version
E-mail this articleThis is a heavy story.
A Longview towing company was called to the Oregon Zoo in Portland on Saturday morning to help a sedated bull elephant having surgery to remove an infected tusk.
"In our 42 years of business it's our first call to the zoo to help with any animals," said Mike DeSpain, vice president of Carl's Towing.
The zoo needed someone to lift Tusko the elephant's head away from his cage's steel bars, where it came to rest after veterinarians sedated the 6.75 ton pachyderm prior to surgery.
Tusko, who is 35 years old, could have suffered nerve damage from the pressure the weight of his massive head created against the cage wall, zoo spokesman Bill LaMarche said Saturday evening.
Carl's Towing was selected for the unusual job because it's one of only two towing companies in the southwest Washington and Portland area that has "recovery air cushions," which are expensive and rarely used, DeSpain said. The devices inflate like a balloon and usually are used to push upright semi-trucks that fall on their sides.
Saturday, the cushions were going to create a pillow between Tusko and the metal bars, DeSpain said. Though his services were called off shortly after he reached the zoo, DeSpain was happy to come to Tusko's aid.
"You don't get many calls to help an elephant," he said. "We got there as fast as we could."
LaMarche said the zoo put inner tubes next to Tusko's head instead. The zoo considered keeping the Carl's Towing cushions around in case Tusko couldn't get up after surgery but decided other plans for helping the elephant were sufficient, he said.
The "recovery air cushions" would have pushed the elephant upright from beneath his big water bed, which LaMarche said was designed to alleviate pressure created when Tusko lay down.
Tusko got up on his own after his five-hour surgery, LaMarche said.
The ordeal, which ended around 2 p.m., lasted three-and-a-half hours longer than planned and proved more complicated than expected.
Surgeons successfully removed 95 to 98 percent of the infected tusk but still must remove a piece of tusk about the size of a roll of duct tape, he said. Keeping Tusko under anesthesia any longer to remove the remaining tusk could have endangered his life, LaMarche said.
The zoo reports that Tusko is alert and eating. The pachyderm fasted for 24 hours before the surgery and is eating all the fruit and treats the humans give him -- mostly.
"He's being a little picky with his vegetables," LaMarche noticed.
Since the zoo gave him a heads-up Friday night about the surgery, DeSpain said he's been following Tusko saga all weekend. Though he didn't get to see the elephant this time around, DeSpain said he plans to return to the zoo soon.
"Maybe we'll load the kids up and take a look," he said.
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