Animal rights activists say an elephant at Edmonton's Valley Zoo is showing signs of depression and severe arthritis and it's time to move her to a sanctuary.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals held a protest Saturday outside the gates of Valley Zoo, to let zoo officials know they would like her to be moved immediately.

"We are asking for Lucy to be moved to a sanctuary immediately," Ashley Byrne, a volunteer with PETA, said outside the zoo.

"She spent the last 30 years being used for human entertainment ... she deserves to be transferred to a sanctuary," Byrne said.

PETA says elephants are social animals, and they believe Lucy is lonely on her own at the zoo.

However officials with the Edmonton Valley Zoo aren't changing their decision. In the past they've stated that the long process of moving Lucy could potentially put her health at risk.

"They are entitled to their opinion, (but) that really doesn't factor into anything," said Dean Treichel, the operations supervisor at the Edmonton Valley Zoo.

An elephant at the Greater Vancouver Zoo faced similar problems six years ago. Animal rights activists asked that she be retired from entertaining the public. After 32 years in Vancouver, she was moved to a sanctuary in Tennessee, but died a year later.

Lucy's plight has caught the attention of long-time animal rights activist Bob Barker, the former host of the TV game show "The Price is Right." He got involved in the debate in February.

On Friday he told CTV News he plans to come to Edmonton to meet with city councillors to discuss his concerns.

"I wanted to meet with the council in session and they wouldn't allow it, but these two members of the council said they would arrange a luncheon at which they would have as many members of the council there as possible," Barker said.

While animal rights activists are convinced Lucy needs to be moved, some animal lovers in Edmonton don't agree.

"This is where she has been loved by people she knows," said Edmontonian Ryan Watson. "The people love her here."

Lucy became the zoo's lone elephant in September 2007, when Samantha the elephant was shipped away to another zoo for breeding purposes.

With a report by Kevin Armstrong