Dear John,
In 1976, a male elephant named Jackson was born into the vast, wild landscapes of Zimbabwe. He was surrounded by a protective family herd and in his future, the promise of infinite horizons.
By 1978, that future was gone.
At just two years old—an age when elephant calves are still deeply dependent on their mothers—Jackson was captured and shipped across the ocean to the United States.
For nearly five decades, Jackson’s life has been a cycle of transfers between circuses and zoo breeding facilities. Today, at nearly 50 years old, the Pittsburgh Zoo—citing industry statistics—refers to him as a "success story" because he is tied to nearly 50% of African elephant births in North America over the last decade.
But when we look beyond the numbers, the reality is heartbreaking.
Jackson hasn’t been treated as a cognitively and socially complex being. Instead, he’s been treated as reproductive infrastructure—a prisoner of a system that values his genetic material over his autonomy. While his offspring are scattered across zoos in four different states, Jackson remains confined, far from the life he was meant to live.
We believe Jackson’s story is clear evidence of why the Association of Zoos & Aquariums’ captive breeding system is ethically bankrupt. Jackson is an individual with an inherent right to liberty, not a tool for exhibition revenue.
Jackson’s full story is one of resilience in the face of profound loss, and it’s a story every animal advocate should be aware of.
