Davu: the Somali word for “the starting of a new age.” That’s what the Fresno Chaffee Zoo in California just named one of the two elephant calves recently born there.
This elephant has been forced into a lifetime of captivity, including likely being separated from his mother and transferred to another zoo as soon as he’s of breeding age. Davu’s mother, grandmother, and father were all taken from the wild and imported to the US to be used for captive breeding in zoos.
It’s hard to imagine a less fitting name for an elephant. Elephant exhibits at zoos represent an archaic, unjust past. Recognition of elephants’ right to liberty represents a just future. In this future, all elephants live freely in their natural habitats, and no more elephants are sacrificed to the destructive myth that zoo captivity is necessary to protect the species.
Five elephants are held captive in the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. Sharing their stories is an important part of freeing them and securing their right to liberty, especially when zoos have so much power and so many resources to control the narrative and try to reassure the public that these births are worthy of celebration rather than condemnation.
Read about the lives of the Fresno Chaffee Zoo elephants on the Nonhuman Rights Project’s Free to be Elephants website, and help raise awareness of their plight by sharing their stories:
