Elephants are famous for their memories, and I often wonder what memories Zuri carries with her.
I imagine she remembers the day, eight years after her birth, when the gates of the zoo opened not to free the elephants, but to take Moja away forever. Did she pace the zoo’s tiny outdoor exhibit dreaming of the miles of forest and soft earth her ancestors walked for generations?
For 17 years, Zuri’s world was a small fraction of what an elephant's world should be. Every meal, every bath, and every night’s sleep happened within the same concrete walls where she was born. In the wild, she would have been a traveler, an explorer, and an integral part of her herd—roaming a vast, diverse landscape and sleeping under a blanket of stars.
When my colleague Courtney and I visited our clients at the Pittsburgh Zoo this year, I stared at the stall where Zuri was born. All those years—decades of forced separations, forced births, the loud echoes of endless visitors, the stench of urine and feces—those memories, those traumas, are all baked into those walls.
This year, Zuri was transferred to the same breeding facility her mother was sent to years ago. But this wasn't a family reunion or a return to nature. It was no more than a transfer of inventory—the zoo’s decision to breed Zuri and doom another generation of elephants to a lifetime of captivity.
This is why we filed a new habeas corpus petition on behalf of Zuri and her half-sister, Victoria, who was also moved to this breeding facility. We now have two active lawsuits in Pennsylvania challenging the unjust confinement of five elephants: Zuri, Victoria, Savanna, Tasha, and Angeline. Our lawsuits demand that the courts recognize the elephants’ right to liberty and order their release to a sanctuary where this right will be respected.
As this year comes to an end, Zuri’s future remains on our minds at the NhRP. Our fight for her right to be free continues.
Will you help us continue our fight for Zuri—and all autonomous nonhuman beings—who deserve to have their fundamental rights recognized under law?