Dear John,
This World Elephant Month, zoos will, no doubt, be showcasing baby elephants in their feeds and marketing materials, promoting their captive breeding programs as “species survival.” It’s a message meant to reassure the public, to reinforce the narrative of captive breeding as “conservation.” At the Nonhuman Rights Project, we believe conservation should be rooted in justice, not spectacle.
The truth is that captive breeding doesn’t serve wild elephant populations. It sustains the captive population of elephants through invasive and traumatic procedures like artificial insemination. It is often costly and ineffective.
This month, in honor of World Elephant Day on August 12th, we're raising awareness about the harms of captive breeding and why zoos are wrong to claim that it’s a form of species conservation.
To learn more, we invite you to read our latest blog post, "The Captive Breeding Myth: Why Zoo-Based Conservation Fails Elephants," and join us in advocating for meaningful, rights-based protections for elephants. There is a more just way.
If you can, please consider making a donation to the NhRP in honor of World Elephant Month! Every dollar raised this month supports our continued fight for elephant rights.
