Last year, the North Carolina Zoo heartily celebrated its “50 WILD Years” together with C’sar, the oldest living African bull elephant in North America.

Based on publicly available information, C’sar, despite various ailments, is said to be well cared for and to “continue to thrive under the dedicated care of his keepers.” As absolute as the Weeping Elephant Project is in its conviction that zoos are inherently cruel and, without exception, should not exist, good on the North Carolina Zoo for treating C’sar humanely (as much as keeping any sentient that's kept in captivity for its entire lifetime can be humane — which is to say, not at all).

But there is no recognition or apparent self-awareness that this zoo has kept C’sar — a wild animal — in captivity for 50 years and counting. The keepers and others can celebrate all they want, but her treatment notwithstanding, it’s not exactly a commendable triumph.

To be absurd for a moment, were we to forcibly remove a U.S.-born baby from her family — over her mother’s fierce objection and undoubted immeasurable despair — ship her in a crate to Kenya and confine her to a People Zoo for 50 years … well … it’s just unthinkable. It would be no less unthinkable even were we to take exemplary care of her throughout. And, of course, after languishing there for 50 years, it won’t be possible to release her "back into the wild." So that’s another 20-30 years for a whole new generation to continue celebrating what a wonderful thing they’re doing for her.

It's maddening that we can somehow extract a being from its family and natural habitat, ship her across the world to live a lifetime confined to an inescapable enclosure (no matter how spacious), and later celebrate the achievement of having kept her there for half a century (to date).

Weeping Elephant Project