In The Spotlight
City of Los Angeles Shuts Down Davenport Elephant Circus Show
Yesterday, the City of Los Angeles revoked Will Davenport’s permit to perform with his three elephants, Queenie, Tina and Jewel, in Circus Vazquez. Los Angeles Animal Services escorted Davenport and the elephants out of the city limits after learning from IDA of the long history of Animal Welfare Act and Endangered Species Act violations committed by Davenport and his various circus identities.
Among the numerous and egregious violations are:
- A history of physical abuse, neglect, inadequate veterinary care, inhumane handling and Animal Welfare Act violations for all three elephants. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is actively investigating the ongoing welfare of these elephants.
- Abuse documented by USDA including multiple wounds consistent with ankus abuse, eye-witness reports of beatings, and the "inappropriate and abusive use of the ankus and such use is likely to cause trauma, behavioral stress, physical harm or unnecessary discomfort..."
- Violation of the Endangered Species Act committed in the purchase of Tina and Jewel, highly endangered Asian elephants, by the Davenports from the Cole Brothers Circus. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is actively investigating.
- US Fish & Wildlife Service Notice of Official Investigation
- L.A. City Animal Services shuts down elephant circus show
At present, IDA does not know the elephants’ location and we are gravely concerned about their well-being.
Please help us help Tina, Jewel and Queenie by writing today to the federal agencies investigating their plight. Ask the USDA and the USFWS to confiscate the elephants and send them to The Elephant Sanctuary, which stands ready to immediately transport and house Tina, Jewel and Queenie at its 2700-acre, natural habitat refuge in Tennessee.
| Chester A. Gipson, D.V.M., Deputy Administrator USDA-APHIS-AC 4700 River Rd., Unit 84 Riverdale, MD 20737-1234 Ph: 301-734-7833 Fax: 301-734-4993 Email: chester.a.gipson@usda.gov |
Mr. H. Dale Hall, Director U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1849 C Street, NW, Room 3256 € Washington, DC 20240 Ph: 202-208-4717 Fax: 202-208-6965 Email: dale_hall@fws.gov |
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Tina and Jewel are Asian elephants in their early forties who have endured lives of hardship and abuse traveling with the Cole Brothers Circus. They were ordered off the road by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) this past March, following many months of being observed to be looking gaunt, sick, and broken. The USDA expressed concern at that time that travel would do further damage to their already precarious health and that the public health was potentially threatened by their undiagnosed condition. More>
About IDA's Elephant Campaign
As the largest land mammal, elephants are genetically designed to move and in the wild are in motion for eighteen hours each day. Constant movement is necessary for their physical well-being, especially for foot, joint, and digestive health. Yet the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA), a zoo industry trade organization, only requires a minimum outdoor enclosure size of 1,800 square feet for one elephant - the equivalent of six parking lot spaces. Lack of space in zoos causes captivity-induced physical and psychological health problems for elephants including debilitating foot and joint problems, arthritis, digestive disorders, and neurotic behaviors resulting from the severe confinement.
With the recognition that zoos cannot adequately provide for the complex physical and psychological needs of elephants, eight successful U.S. zoos have closed their elephant exhibits, setting a positive precedent worldwide.
"As the joints and feet [of zoo elephants] become progressively injured by life spent on a concrete floor, the pain the elephants feel makes them reluctant to move around as much on their sore legs and feet. This creates a vicious circle and downward spiral of pain, followed by less movement, causing further injury, causing more pain, causing even less movement, etc. It is a slow gradual process that does its damage bit-by-bit and this damage continues hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and through the long decades of a zoo elephant's life."
Michael Schmidt, DVM
former Chief Veterinarian
Portland Zoo
Elephants are highly complex, social animals. In the wild, they live in extended family groups. They form lifelong bonds and females stay with their mothers, aunts, sisters and other female relatives for their entire lives. Males stay with their mothers for up to fifteen years. These intelligent animals can travel more than thirty miles a day.
Today's zoos are unable to meet the physical, psychological and social needs of elephants. Zoos socially deprive elephants by keeping them in unnaturally small groups and routinely break up any bond formed in the zoo world when zoos shuffle elephants and other animals from one zoo to another for breeding or to make room for younger, wild-captured elephants.