Elephant euthanized at Brookfield Zoo

The Brookfield Zoo has announced the death of Christy, a 28-year-old African elephant.

The Chicago Zoological Society said Christy, who arrived at the zoo in 1984, was euthanized Tuesday morning because of kidney failure.

Necropsy findings concluded that Christy had a structurally abnormal right kidney, which was only roughly one-tenth the size of a normal kidney. She also had an enlarged left ureter, which is one of the tubes that carry urine from the kidney to the bladder.

Veterinarian Mike Akesson said both were non-treatable conditions and probably congenital. Adkesson said Christy went into complete renal failure in the past few days and began to deteriorate rapidly.