article_snippet.sent: Rama the elephant, who completed paintings with an Asian elephant trunk, died Monday, Oregon Zoo officials announced on Facebook.
article_snippet.sent: Rama had experienced a sharp decline in mobility in recent weeks, an issue stemming from a 25-year-old injury to Rama left front leg,' A zoo said in the post.
article_snippet.sent: Rama the elephant was euthanized this week at the age of 31 by Oregon Zoo officials.
article_snippet.sent: It continued 'The treatments that had been successful for many years were no longer easing Rama discomfort, and so — with sadness and compassion — our animal-care staff decided the most humane course of action was to euthanize Rama.'
article_snippet.sent: Zoo veterinarian Jim Storms said in a release on the Oregon Zoo's website that Rama's 2013 tuberculosis diagnosis did not play a role.
article_snippet.sent: Deputy Director Chris Pfefferkorn said in a release on the Oregon Zoo's website that Rama's 2013 tuberculosis diagnosis did not play a role the leg injury took place in 1990 as Rama was sexually maturing. 
article_snippet.sent: Rama is seen in this 1991 photograph, one year after Rama leg was injured . '
article_snippet.sent: Well, Rama sustained the injury before any of the folks that work here were here,' the Oregon Zoo's elephant curator Bob Lee countered in an interview with KOIN.
highlights_snippet.sent: Rama the elephant, who completed paintings with his trunk, died Monday, Oregon Zoo officials announced on Facebook .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: female elephants said Rama was euthanized after health problems from the leg injury .
  