Railing Against The Suffering of Captive, Wild, & Orphaned Elephants

Person in green sweatshirt and dark pants holding a bear trap, with a compassionate elephant laying nearby.

The Essentials

We rail against the abuse and suffering of captive elephants in zoos, circuses, roadside attractions, and traveling promotions, as well as the perils faced by wild and orphaned elephants.
We use social media, opinion pieces, paid media, and collaboration with other organizations and individuals to educate the public about the plight of elephants.
Through this heightened awareness, we aim to persuade people not to attend events that exploit elephants, and to educate them about the issues affecting wild and orphaned elephants.
Our goal is to build public pressure on the attractions’ owners to compel them to release (and not replace) the captive elephants, such that they can be re-homed in an accredited sanctuary and live out their lives in peace. We also work to highlight and address concerns about wild and orphaned elephants.

“The Indian elephant is known sometimes to weep. Sir E. Tennent, in describing those which he saw captured and bound in Ceylon, says, some 'lay motionless on the ground, with no other indication of suffering than the tears which suffused their eyes and flowed incessantly'.”

Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

Overview

Captive Elephants

All around our country, solitary captive elephants are suffering for our supposed entertainment, in circuses, zoos, sham sanctuaries, and roadside attractions. To be separated from their families, isolated, and confined is especially devastating to elephants, who are by nature complex, intelligent, self-aware, intensely emotional, and highly social. That we continue to do this is a moral atrocity.

Some elephants used for “entertainment” are born in captivity. Others are captured in the wild. In many instances, these elephants have been violently separated from their mothers, shipped across the world as freight, and sentenced to a miserable existence — deprived of the company of other elephants, or any sources of comfort or contact. Asian elephants may be “trained” to comply by means of “the crush” or “the Phajaan”, which involves binding them with ropes and beating them for weeks or months on end. The isolation, emotional and physical chaos, and relentless torment to which they are subjected is shattering.

Typically, captive elephants are neglected, deprived, housed, and transported in deplorable conditions, and left to languish in emotional despair and unrelenting physical agony. This abuse exposes them to chronic health problems; they have shorter life expectancies than elephants in the wild – which, given the circumstances, may serve as a stroke of unintended mercy.

Drawing of a large elephant and several small people working together to hang a sign that reads 'The Circus is Coming.' The sign mentions shackles, bullwhips, and loneliness, implying a dark tone for the event.

Audrey Mealia, global head of wildlife at World Animal Protection, has said: “For too long, these intelligent, sociable creatures have been the victims of a cruel trade that rips baby elephants from their mothers and family groups. They are destined for a life of suffering and brutality behind the scenes, cruelly exploited as entertainers under the guise of innocent fun for visitors. Tourists are duped into believing they are helping these elephants and the conservation of the species, while in reality, they are creating the demand for such activities.”

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Wild & Orphaned Elephants

There are a host of issues to be addressed concerning wild and orphaned elephants. For wild elephants, there are issues of poaching, conflicts with humans, the dangers attendant to tourism, and ensuring they remain free. Orphaned elements pose their own concerns, including determining the circumstances under which they can be reintegrated to the wild, the means by which they became orphaned, and how to care for them as they mature.