Peaches, an African elephant who spent more than 50 years of her life at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, died in Chicago this month. The temperature was 8 degrees below zero, too cold for an elephant who spent her life in San Diego County.

The unnatural environment and stress of captivity contribute to debilitating disease and illness that elephants in the wild never experience. As zoo elephants get older, their need for more medical care increases. But after taking 51 years of Peaches' life, the San Diego Zoo dumped her, Wankie and Tateema to make room for younger elephants. Peaches died of complications brought on by years of captivity; she did not die of complications of old age.

The story of Peaches begins in Namibia, where she was taken from her mother at the age of 2 and sent, chained and crated in the bottom on a ship on a long, rough voyage to New York. She was sold to an animal broker and, after enduring some time in a circus, she was resold to the San Diego Zoo in 1953.

While confined at the zoo and the Wild Animal Park, Peaches was chained every night by two legs, forcing her to stand or lie in her own feces and urine for more than 16 hours. As a result, she suffered many of the ailments of captivity, including foot abscesses, limb stiffness, toenail abscesses, periodic bouts of colic, bedsores, cysts and degenerative arthritis. In addition, she was subjected to cruel indignities by the many unsuccessful attempts to force-breed her.

Tateema died three months ago at the age of 34. Wankie is now alone. The least the zoo can do is bring her back to California and place her in a sanctuary. A zoo is not a sanctuary. Currently, there is no sanctuary in this area. However, it is the goal of the Elephant Alliance to establish an elephant sanctuary in San Diego County.

We failed Peaches and Tateema in life, but we vow that the sad story of their existence and premature deaths will not go untold. The people of San Diego deserve to know the truth. Of the 16 African elephants that have been held in captivity by the San Diego Zoological Society since 1961, nine have died (the average age being 18.2 years). In the wild, elephants live to be 60 to 70 years old.

We hold the San Diego Zoological Society totally responsible for the agony, suffering and premature deaths of dear Peaches and Tateema. The Elephant Alliance exhorts the society to take corrective action immediately and bring Wankie back to California, stop their unsuccessful and dismal breeding program, phase out their inadequate elephant exhibits and cease the importation of elephants.

In recent years, many zoos in Europe and in the United States have closed their elephant exhibits. Elephants are not made for captivity and captivity cannot be made for elephants.

Florence L. Lambert is founder and director of the Elephant Alliance, a nonprofit group based in La Jolla.