A Litigation Article from All-Creatures.org

Why do we fight for elephants?

From Bob Jones, The Nonhuman Rights Project
August 2023

Elephants are not now nor have they ever been domesticated: they are wild animals who were forcefully removed from their natural habitat and/or were born into captivity. No scientist who has studied free-roaming elephants believes that elephants should be held captive. Despite the 'best efforts' by zoos, they simply cannot provide the kind of environment elephants need to thrive.

My name is Bob Jacobs. I am a neuroscientist who has conducted research on the mammalian brain since 1984. You may know me from a 2021 study I and several colleagues published on the traumatic impact of impoverished, captive environments on the brains of animals, with an emphasis on elephants and cetaceans. I’m also one of the experts who has submitted affidavits in support of the NhRP’s lawsuits to free elephants from the Fresno Chaffee Zoo in California and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado.

Zoos have existed for nearly 200 years. One might wonder why the NhRP and the experts who support the NhRP’s elephant rights cases are attempting to get elephants released from zoos to sanctuaries.

To begin, one must accept that elephants are not now nor have they ever been domesticated: they are wild animals who were forcefully removed from their natural habitat and/or were born into captivity. No scientist who has studied free-roaming elephants believes that elephants should be held captive. Zoo arguments for keeping elephants in captivity (e.g., education, conservation) simply don’t hold up against any reasonable scrutiny—but zoos have perfected their propaganda machine (just as cigarette companies did decades before).

Despite the best efforts by zoos, they simply cannot provide the kind of environment elephants need to thrive. Elephants need space, complex social interactions, intellectual stimulation, and a large variety of plants for food. They need freedom. They need to be able to make choices. They need to be actual elephants rather than just hollow, captive caricatures imprisoned for human entertainment.

Just as humans suffer when held against their will–think prisons or pandemics–captive elephants experience a variety of medical ailments (e.g., obesity, osteoarthritis of their feet, digestive problems, skin problems) as well as neural trauma, which is reflected in persistent stereotypies (i.e., repetitive, purposeless movements like swaying back and forth).

Although zookeepers care about the elephants in their charge, that is simply not the issue. Since captive elephants cannot be returned to their natural environments because they lack the skills to survive there, the only realistic option is to release them to authentic sanctuaries.

Unlike zoos, which are primarily designed for humans, true sanctuaries are designed for the animals as they provide a much greater space, a much better diet, and the freedom for elephants to be the magnificent, social creatures they are. Zoos resist this option, as one might expect, for one simple reason: money. Elephants are a main attraction for all zoos that house them. Money talks, elephants suffer, and some humans find this entertaining. I don’t.

Humans are willing to grant personhood status, that is, the capacity for at least a single legal right, to rivers and corporations, but tend to balk when it comes to nonhuman animals like elephants because of human exceptionalism and hubris–the false notion that we are superior to nonhuman beings with whom we share the planet. We are not, and it is clear from every vantage point that elephants need and deserve the right to liberty, which the NhRP is attempting to secure for them.

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