Dear John,
Today, the Nonhuman Rights Project submitted a habeas corpus petition to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, demanding the right to liberty of five elephants held in captivity at the Pittsburgh Zoo: Savanna, Angeline, Tasha, Victoria, and Zuri.
The Pittsburgh Zoo has held elephants since 1928 and has a long history of relying on dominance-based control methods, including bullhooks—tools designed to cause pain. The USDA has even cited the zoo for using dogs to “nip and charge” elephants.
Their outdoor elephant exhibit covers less than one acre, and the barn they’re forced to live in is made of cement and concrete. The zoo has a history of chaining elephants during and after birth, forcibly separating bonded family members, and breeding elephants for display and profit. Our client Savanna has been used extensively in the zoo’s elephant breeding efforts. A now publicly unavailable documentary film celebrating captive breeding at the zoo shows Savanna in chains following Angeline’s birth. A bullhook is used on her and thrown at her during the birth and after the birth.
Help us fight for her freedom.
Existing animal welfare laws fail to address the core issue: the elephants’ continued imprisonment. While current regulations cover feeding, shelter, and veterinary care, they do nothing to protect the elephants’ freedom.
“The scientific evidence submitted in support of this lawsuit makes clear that these elephants are suffering physically and psychologically because they’re deprived of their freedom,” said NhRP Litigation Director Elizabeth Stein. “The courts have the power and duty to remedy this.”
The NhRP is initially asking the Court of Common Pleas to issue “an order to show cause,” which would require the Pittsburgh Zoo to come to court to justify its imprisonment of elephants Angeline, Savanna, Tasha, Victoria, and Zuri. Ultimately, the NhRP is urging the court to either release the elephants to a sanctuary or consider them as candidates for rewilding.
Our petition draws on centuries of case law and decades of scientific evidence about who elephants are. We assert that keeping these elephants confined violates Pennsylvania common law and the most basic principles of justice.
This case could set a powerful legal precedent—and we need your help to see it through.
