Weeping Elephant Project, 923 Saw Mill River Road, Suite 164, Ardsley, NY (2026)

05/29/2026

Happy, the Bronx Zoo elephant whose case became one of the most visible legal challenges to elephant captivity in the United States, was euthanized this week at age 55. Less than two weeks earlier, Tembo died at the Topeka Zoo after roughly 50 years there. Taken together, these deaths feel like more than sad news cycles. They feel like the passing of a captive generation of elephants in the U.S.

And with that passing comes something else: the weakening of an old idea. For decades, zoos normalized the captivity of elephants despite everything we know about their intelligence, mobility, social needs, and psychological complexity. Happy’s life spanned that whole era, but the coverage of her death shows how much the ground has shifted. NPR and AP, for instance, didn't treat captivity as a neutral backdrop; it gave real space to the argument that elephants do not belong in zoo enclosures, and to the advocates who have spent years forcing that truth into public view.

That matters. Happy wasn't only an elephant the public recognized; she was also the focus of the Nonhuman Rights Project’s groundbreaking lawsuit seeking to have her recognized as a legal person for the purpose of challenging her confinement and moving her to sanctuary. The courts ultimately refused, but the case changed public discourse, generated major scrutiny, and even drew powerful dissents from judges who described her captivity as unjust and inhumane.

So this moment is about grief, but it's also about history. A generation of elephants kept for decades in American zoos is dying, and with them, perhaps, the moral and cultural legitimacy of elephant captivity itself. What once seemed permanent now feels increasingly untenable. Even mainstream reporting is making clear that the opposition to elephant captivity isn't fringe; it's visible, legally sophisticated, and impossible to ignore.

Happy deserved more than to become a symbol after a life in confinement. But if there's any meaning to draw from this moment, it's that the world defending elephant captivity looks older, weaker, and closer to its end than it once did.

Photo credits: Gigi Glendinning, Nonhuman Rights Project, In Defense of Animals.

05/25/2026

Tembo, the Topeka Zoo’s last remaining elephant, was humanely euthanized on May 16, 2026, after a rapid decline in health.

Tembo arrived at Topeka Zoo in 1976, after a life that began far from Kansas; she spent nearly 50 years there, growing old inside an enclosure that was never a substitute for the world elephants are meant to know.

That news matters on its own, but it also closes a chapter that had long been under scrutiny: the Topeka Zoo has appeared on In Defense of Animals’ “10 Worst Zoos for Elephants” list eight times, highlighting how confinement in a small, restrictive exhibit strains the physical and mental health of aging elephants.

Cora — an Asian elephant who arrived after years in circuses and whose health required special care in recent years — died last year, and together their losses mean the zoo’s elephant era has come to an end.

For decades Tembo and Cora lived lives shaped by capture, transport, and for-profit entertainment systems that separated them from wild herds and wild behaviors.

Now both elephants are gone.

This should be the moment the Topeka Zoo closes its elephant enclosure for good — not another replacement, but a permanent end to an era of captivity that failed to meet these animals’ needs.

Photo credits: Judy Carman, via In Defense of Animals (In Defense of Animals)

05/25/2026

Our Executive Director is in Thailand right now, spending time at elephant sanctuaries — helping out, learning, and documenting.

Her work with elephants in Asia goes back years, including extended time at Boon Lott’s Elephant Sanctuary. She also spent several years in Nepal, where she worked closely with mahouts and local communities — experiences that shaped the way she thinks about the realities of captivity for working elephants.

This trip is part of a longer practice of listening, observing, and learning from people who live this work every day.

One of the sanctuaries she’s returning to is — and over the coming days she’ll be posting videos from the trip. We hope you’ll follow along as she shares a closer look at sanctuary life, elephant care, and the people working to give these animals a better future.

05/14/2026

For years, the zoo industry sold the public a comforting story about elephants: that captive breeding was helping preserve a species in decline, and that accredited zoos were building a future population worth defending.

Michael J. Berens’ reporting helped crack that story open.

In his 2012 Seattle Times series Glamour Beasts, Berens reported that for every elephant born in a U.S. zoo, on average, two others die. He also reported that while zoos publicly claimed elephants were “thriving,” internal projections showed the captive population was on track for demographic collapse.

That alone should have changed everything.

But one of the most revealing parts of Berens’ reporting was what he found about sanctuary. AZA didn’t simply disagree with zoos that chose to send elephants to sanctuaries — it punished them. And the reason matters: sanctuaries refuse to breed more elephants into captivity.

That tells you a lot.

If captive breeding were really about conservation, sending elephants to sanctuary wouldn’t be treated like a threat. But if the real priority is keeping a shrinking captive population reproductively useful — and keeping elephants inside the zoo system — then the backlash makes perfect sense.

Berens’ work remains some of the most important reporting ever published on elephants in zoos because it didn’t just document suffering. It exposed contradiction. It showed how far the industry’s public story had drifted from its actual outcomes.

If you want the fuller story, including the Oregon Zoo contract, AZA’s punishment of zoos that chose sanctuary, and why all of this matters so much now, we’ve put together a longer piece on our Resource Hub: https://weepingelephant.org/captivity-and-tourism/the-2012-reporting-that-first-exposed-the-zoo-industrys-elephant-narrative

Photos & Captions taken from The Seattle Times, 2012 & 2013.

05/05/2026

Steve Koyle is the founder of Elephant Care Unchained, an organization dedicated to improving the welfare of captive elephants and eliminating cruelty toward them globally. Steve has travelled around the world providing care for elephants for more than 24 years.

In our interview, he speaks to something that most people working in institutional animal care know, but rarely say out loud: there are many moments when the job asks you to cross a line you can’t cross.

What Steve describes is the tension between doing what’s expected and doing what's right. Over time, that kind of pressure doesn’t just stay with the trainer; it shapes the care, the culture, and the elephants living inside it.

That’s where accountability starts.

🎧 Bearing Weight podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen.

🎙️ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bearing-weight/id1885987780

🎙️ https://open.spotify.com/show/3jJKBwZlzGdmU7TSiTftfO

🎙️ https://www.youtube.com//videos

05/01/2026

Finally, a win for elephants.

Jordan World Circus has dropped elephant acts, thanks in large part to sustained public pressure and relentless campaigning by organizations like PETA, and the voices of hundreds of thousands of caring people.

Those acts included Viola, a 56-year-old elephant who was still being forced to perform and give rides despite chronic health issues and multiple escape attempts.

Viola’s repeated escapes aren't mere accidents; they're desperate acts of resistance from an animal who has endured decades of confinement and documented abuse. From her 2010 flight in Virginia to her recent, harrowing trek through Montana traffic in April 2024, each incident serves as a public plea for the autonomy and dignity she has been denied since 1970. These "escapes" highlight the dangerous reality of forcing geriatric elephants to perform under the constant threat of the bullhook, proving that no amount of training can suppress her innate need for freedom.

This is what the modern circus industry has looked like: smaller operations, less visible, but still relying on aging elephants pushed far beyond their limits.

This decision shows that pressure works.

But removal from Jordan World Circus isn’t the same as freedom. Viola — and over 60 other elephants like her — are still being forced to perform in circuses around the country. Carson & Barnes Circus, Carden International Circus, Loomis Bros. Circus, Tarzan Zerbini Circus, and Royal Hanneford Circus continue to exploit elephants. We must push for their retirement in accredited sanctuaries.

This is real progress. And it’s exactly why we keep going.

Photo credits: PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)

04/29/2026

When people ask why documented welfare problems persist in facilities that are both regulated and accredited, the answer is rarely about individual bad actors.

The USDA has the authority to fine facilities that hold captive elephants. In practice, fines average a few hundred dollars per violation for operations generating millions in annual revenue. Meaningful enforcement actions — license suspensions, facility closures — remain rare regardless of violation history.

The AZA, whose accreditation stamp is routinely cited as proof of high welfare standards, is funded by the institutions it accredits. Its peer reviews are conducted by other AZA members.

Neither system was built to be adversarial toward the industry it oversees. That's not a criticism of individual inspectors or reviewers. It's a description of how both were designed.

The problem isn't enforcement. It's design.

Swipe through for a closer look at how both systems work — and why it matters for every elephant currently in a U.S. facility.

04/27/2026

Katherine Connor, founder of Boon Lott’s Elephant Sanctuary (BLES), describes something simple but hard to hear: elephants learn to endure.

In captivity, it’s survival mode — simply getting through the day, every day.

What she’s seen in rescued elephants over decades of this work is a shift out of that. Not all at once, but slowly — realizing they don’t have to brace for what’s coming next.

That’s where recovery starts.

🎧 The Bearing Weight podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen. More info & direct links here: https://weepingelephant.org/podcast

04/23/2026

We're looking for volunteers to help us document traveling circus performances across the U.S.

If a circus with elephants is scheduled near you, we'd ask you to attend and document — photos and videos of the animals, the conditions, the performance itself. That documentation becomes part of a larger record that informs our advocacy and our understanding of what's actually happening to these animals on the road.

We've built a tracker so you can see what's coming to your area:
weepingelephant.org/circus-tracker

Next stops include Maine, Wisconsin, and Missouri — but shows travel continuously, and we need people in every state where elephant performances are still permitted. Email us at [email protected], send us a FB message, or visit the tracker to learn more.

04/20/2026

Many zoo employees truly care about the animals they work with. A lot of them enter this field because they love animals, want to help them, and spend their days doing real, hands-on care: feeding, cleaning, monitoring health, preparing enrichment, and working with veterinary teams.

That matters. The problem is that care is not the same as welfare.

An elephant can be well-fed, closely watched, and handled by people who genuinely care about them — and still live in a system that restricts their movement, separates them from the kind of social life elephants need, exposes them to chronic stress, and gives them very little control over their own day. In other words, good intentions and hard work do not automatically create a good life for the animal.

That distinction is important because captivity is often defended in the language of care, education, and conservation. But the real question is not whether staff are trying. It’s whether the elephant is actually able to thrive.

We think that distinction matters — especially when the people providing daily care may themselves be doing their best within a structure that is still failing the animals.

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