Every captive elephant has a story. For almost every elephant held captive in US zoos, their story remains untold.
An elephant named Targa is one of many elephants profiled on freetobelephants.com—a first-of-its-kind online portal that’s part of a national NhRP campaign to educate millions of people about the extraordinary cognitive, emotional, and social complexity of elephants, how they suffer in even the “best” zoo, and why they need the right to liberty. The more funds we raise during World Elephant Week, the more elephants we can help and the more people we can reach. Read NhRP Litigation Director Elizabeth Stein’s reflections on Targa’s life below, and help us build a just world for elephants by donating to the NhRP today—through August 19th, every donation will be matched up to $18,500 thanks to a generous group of NhRP supporters.
Targa the elephant was born at Ringling Brothers Circus World in Orlando, Florida. Her mother died in another Ringling Brothers facility. Eventually, like so many elephants who are shipped all over the country so people can make money sometimes literally off of their backs, Targa wound up at the Rosamond Park Zoo in Syracuse, New York, where she lives in a small, desolate exhibit with seven other elephants. Had her parents not been torn from their herds and natural habitats to be exploited in circuses in the US, she’d be spending this time of her life caring for her children and grandchildren, maybe even leading the family as their matriarch.
Targa had three children and five grandchildren. Two of her grandchildren are held in captivity with Targa and her daughter Mali. One was separated from her and Mali when he was ten to be used for captive breeding. Two died young from a virus that’s a common cause of death in captive elephants. Mali’s brother was moved early on to another zoo and died after falling in an artificial pool. Targa’s third child was stillborn.
As Litigation Director for the Nonhuman Rights Project and simply as a human being, I find it utterly enraging and appalling the grotesque, totally unnatural life Targa has been forced to lead. But Targa’s story also resonates with me on a very personal level. Let me explain why.
Like Targa, I’m a mother and grandmother. I have a son, a daughter, and four grandsons. My family is my life and my happiness. In many ways, my identity. I spend a great deal of time caring for my family, which is my greatest joy. To some, I may seem like the matriarch.
Through my years of working to secure elephants’ right to liberty with my amazing colleagues at the NhRP, I’ve learned that elephants are actually one of the few animals besides humans who have deep bonds with their grandmothers, and studies have shown elephant babies have a greater chance of survival and long life when under their grandmothers’ care. As wisdom flows from generation to generation, a single matriarch’s legacy will endure long after she passes.
Targa has been denied the unique experience of being a mother and grandmother—an experience that profoundly touches my life every day. Why has she been denied this experience? The answer is simple. Because as an elephant she’s the object of human exploitation and entitlement: and the law allows it.
