IDA Prompts Fish and Wildlife Service to Investigate Illegal Sale of Elephants

Take Action to urge FWS and the USDA to send Tina and Jewel to a sanctuary

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. They were transported to an unauthorized facility in Leggett, Tex., where IDA found them in July, in the possession of the Davenport family, notorious for their long and egregious history of abuse and neglect including the horrific death of baby elephant Heather who was left overnight on an overcrowded and overheated truck in the New Mexico desert.

Appallingly, IDA learned in November that the USDA had lifted its travel restrictions on these elephants. Along with the Davenport's third elephant, Queenie, Tina and Jewel were trucked to New Orleans, La. where they were chained in the old Winn Dixie Parking lot to give elephant rides with the Kingford Circus (one of the Davenport's many circus identities).

At IDA's request, Jeff Dorson, director of the Humane Society of Louisiana, inspected them and found "three downtrodden-looking elephants, at least one of whom was notably underweight, chained under grim conditions at this rundown circus." (Read the Humane Society's Report) The current whereabouts of the elephants is unknown to IDA at this time. Our information is that the cause of Tina and Jewel's health crisis was never determined, and that, while there may have been some slight weight gain, they are still clearly suffering and in dire need of diagnosis and veterinary care.

IDA has further obtained information that Tina and Jewel, rather than being leased by the Davenports as claimed, were actually sold by Cole Circus without a permit from the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), in flagrant violation of the Endangered Species Act, and that the USDA is aware of the illegal sale. It is inconceivable that a permit would have been granted had one been applied for, as the ESA prohibits licensing parties who have failed to demonstrate responsibility, or who have had civil penalties assessed that demonstrate a lack of responsibility. Davenport family patriarch, John, had his license to exhibit animals revoked by the USDA in 1998 and has been barred from any activity as an exhibitor by himself or through any agent, which would include family members, as the result of multiple willful Animal Welfare Act violations.

It is hard to imagine a less "responsible" person.

FWS has launched an official investigation, at IDA's request, into this illegal sale. IDA is asking that FWS immediately confiscate Tina and Jewel and allow The Elephant Sanctuary to provide the permanent refuge it has offered to these suffering elephants. Meanwhile Tina and Jewel and the Davenport's third elephant, Queenie, remain in the hands of these people with a history of horrific animal abuse and neglect. They need our help!

What You Can Do:

1. Please Take Action to urge your federal representative to insist that our federal government, both the USDA and FWS, take immediate action to confiscate these suffering elephants and to hold the Davenports responsible for their multiple violations of federal law.
2. Please also Take Action to demand that the USDA and FWS work together and individually to immediately confiscate these elephants and send them to TES, a USDA-approved quarantine facility for elephants in Tennessee that has a proven track record of rehabilitating elephants who have become debilitated from years of life in the circus or zoo.

Learn more about what Tina and Jewel have suffered at the hands of the circus industry, and read a letter from The Elephant Sanctuary stating it will accept Tina and Jewel immediately.