Dear John,
Ndlulamitsi, also known as Ndula, was born free in South Africa’s Kruger National Park—a place where elephants roam a vast landscape, raise their young in tight-knit families, and lead rich emotional lives.
But that freedom was stolen from her.
In 2003, Ndula—who was pregnant at the time—was captured and shipped to the United States along with ten other elephants, despite a wave of global outrage. The justifications for their capture were misleading, and the consequences have been devastating.
For over twenty years, Ndula has been confined at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. At one point, 17 elephants were crammed into just six acres of space (free-living African savannah elephants roam habitats as large as 2.7 million acres). And throughout her captivity, Ndula has been exploited in the zoo’s breeding program—forced to give birth to three male calves who would later be taken from her, long before they were ready.
In the wild, elephant families are deeply bonded. Female elephants stay with their natal herds for life, and males leave gradually as they mature, sometimes forming bachelor groups. But in captivity, these social structures are disrupted and their bonds broken in an instant to serve the zoo's interests.
The zoo presents Ndula’s forced pregnancies and the births of her calves as triumphs of conservation, but the reality is just plain tragic.
Her offspring have been born into the same exploitative conditions in captivity. Elephants who spend their lives suffering in captivity are not contributing to the survival of their species. They are being held against their will, and to their own psychological and physical detriment. There is no justification for the profound suffering that a lifetime of captivity inflicts on these intelligent, social beings.
Ndula deserves better. Her sons deserve better. Every elephant does.
