Dear John,
Titan was born in Eswatini, where he roamed freely with his family, exploring vast landscapes as elephants are meant to. That life was stolen from him.
In 2016, at just seven years old, Titan was one of 17 elephants forcibly removed from Hlane National Park in Eswatini and shipped to the US under the false pretense of “rescue.” Instead of protection, Titan and his mother, Simunye, were condemned to a life of captivity in American zoos. Sadly, like so many other captive male elephants, Titan was also forced to participate in the AZA’s captive breeding program.
For the past eight years, Titan has known nothing but confinement. He spent most of his life at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas, where he was denied the ability to roam, make his own choices, or remain with his family. In January 2025, he was separated from his mother and the other elephants he had formed bonds with and trucked across the country to Zoo Atlanta, yet another facility incapable of providing him the freedom to exercise his autonomy or express natural elephant behavior.
His reality? A life dictated by the zoo industry’s demands.
Routine upheaval. Instead of forming natural bonds as male elephants do in the wild, Titan has been repeatedly relocated, disrupting any sense of stability.
Forced breeding. Zoos exploit elephants like Titan for breeding programs—using invasive procedures to produce calves who will also live in captivity.
A lifetime of captivity. No enclosure can ever replicate the vast, complex world that elephants need to thrive.
Zoos claim they hold elephants in captivity to support conservation of the species, but Titan’s story illuminates a very different reality: capturing elephants, confining them in environments that are physically and psychologically damaging, and breeding more elephants into the same damaging life in captivity. This does nothing to protect elephants in the wild, where they belong.
Titan’s story is tragic, but he is not alone. It’s time to demand change.
Learn more about Titan and help us share his story.
