Whose Elephant Is It?: She's cute, cuddly, 300 pounds, and the subject of fierce dispute. Who owns the Oregon Zoo's newborn pachyderm--and who should? Winston Ross investigates.

This much is undisputed: the baby Asian elephant born last Friday at the Oregon Zoo is ridiculously cute. She's all fuzzy and gangly and clumsy, and even at 300 pounds, you just want to roll her up in your arms and snuggle. Watch this video if you don't believe us. Just try to stop yourself from saying "Awww" every five seconds.

But here's what's not so cute: that calf tumbled out of her mom's womb and into a world of controversy, into a public-relations fiasco for that zoo and the baby's actual owner: the private elephant ranch Have Trunk Will Travel, based in Perris, Calif. Things got so ugly this week that the zoo's director, Kim Smith, found herself compelled to call a press conference, during which bloodthirsty reporters were practically stepping on themselves to fire the next hardball question. At the director of a zoo. Several times during the highly tense 37-minute session, Smith had to implore of the media mob that they "take turns."

Why the outcry? Coincidentally or not, the Seattle Times published an investigative series the same weekend the yet-to-be-named calf took her first bites of hay. The series' thesis: pachyderms in captivity die way too often. And one of those stories was about this particular baby, the offspring of Rose-Tu (mom) and Tusko (dad.) About how that baby might be yanked away from her big gray loving mom at some point and shipped off to do tricks for Have Trunk Will Travel, which animal-rights activists accuse of abusing elephants. Turns out, Have Trunk Will Travel actually owns that little baby elephant, Rumpelstiltskin style. The company also owns Rose-Tu's fourth offspring, and her sixth. And that means the company has the right to take her away.

"I can't wait to hug her," the company's owner, Kari Johnson told the Times .

This revelation prompted an outcry from elephant lovers all over the country. How dare they take that baby from her mom? Who signed off on some contract that gives away ownership rights to the unborn children of the Oregon zoo's elephants?

Even Bob...