IDA Prompts USDA To Historic Elephant Rescue

Ned is only the second elephant ever to be confiscated in the history of the Animal Welfare Act.

In early October 2008, IDA’s volunteer circus elephant specialist Deb Robinson was researching the animal acts that have traveled with UniverSoul Circus. She discovered some appalling photos on Flickr (an internet photo site) of the elephant Ned performing with his trainer Lance Ramos (aka Lance Kollman, or Sir Lancelot) for the Royal Hanneford Circus. The photos were taken and posted by a circus patron who was unaware of the elephant’s terrible condition. Clearly emaciated, Ned looked like an ancient elephant, even though he is just 21 years old.

IDA immediately sent the photos to elephant experts and filed a complaint with the USDA. At least one of the experts who received the photos also contacted the USDA out of concern about the debilitated, suffering elephant. 

Less than a month later, Ned was rescued, by the USDA, from his trainer’s property in Florida and sent to The Elephant Sanctuary! Never before has IDA worked on a case that has had such a fast resolution.

Ned is only the second elephant ever to be confiscated in the history of the Animal Welfare Act.

Ned has begun his healing process at The Elephant Sanctuary, which estimates that he is about a ton (2,000 pounds) underweight. He now eats a variety of foods - his favorites are watermelon and corn on the cob – and he has begun to explore the sanctuary’s lovely outdoor environment after a very timid initial response. Follow Ned's progress at The Elephant Sanctuary website.

Meanwhile, Ned’s trainer, Lance Ramos, remains a USDA-licensed exhibitor while the case for revocation of his license is on appeal. He and his father, Manuel Ramos, have a history of violating the Animal Welfare Act since 1989. (click here for more information about the Ramos family) He has in his control other animals, including big cats, zebras and camels.  

This case has strong parallels to the case of John Davenport, former proprietor of the King Royal Circus. The USDA has allowed Davenport to continue business as usual despite revocation of his license (due to the death of a baby elephant) and his failure to pay the $200,000 fine levied against him. Click here for more information on this case.

What You Can Do

Please write to the USDA and thank them for confiscating Ned but express your outrage that Ramos, a chronic violator of the Animal Welfare Act who has been implicated in the deaths of a lion and an elephant, continues to have a USDA exhibitors license and animals in his charge. Ask the USDA to confiscate all of Ramos’ animals and to see to it that this animal abuser is put out of business for good. Demand that the USDA permanently revoke Kollman’s license and ensure that he and no member of his family can ever exploit and harm animals again.

Write to:

Elizabeth Goldentyer, DVM
Eastern Regional Director
USDA, APHIS, Animal Care
Email: Betty.J.Goldentyer@usda.gov

Also write to: 

Dr. Chester A. Gipson,
Deputy Administrator,
USDA, APHIS, Animal Care
Email: Chester.A.Gipson@usda.gov

History of the Ramos Exotic Animal Trainers

Lancelot Ramos Kollman, aka Lancelot Kollman Ramos, has a record of USDA violations going back years, as does his father, Manuel Ramos. Despite this family’s record – which includes the death of Kollman’s aunt in 2000 after an elephant named Kenya attacked her – the USDA granted Kollman an exhibitor license in 2005.

In January 2000, Kenya broke loose and attacked Kollman’s aunt, killing her. At the time, Kollman was exhibiting animals under the license of his father, Manuel Ramos. Kenya died suspiciously a few days after the attack. Manuel Ramos gave up his license as a result of the violations cited by the USDA and was also criminally charged by the State Attorney. According to published reports, Manuel Ramos then turned over the “family business” to his son Lancelot Kollman, whose compound houses “15 tigers, two lions, a zebra and several horses.”

On July 24, 2000, the USDA wrote to Kollman, stating that “You were responsible for or participated in violations that resulted in the revocation of Manuel Ramos’ USDA license.” Published reports also quoted the USDA as saying that Kollman “was managing the animals or had some control over the conditions that caused the violations.”

Manuel Ramos, Kollman’s father, had been charged three separate times by the USDA, going back to 1989, for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including the 2000 order revoking his license.

In May 2001, Kollman signed a consent decision with the USDA which stated that he was disqualified from seeking a USDA license until May 2006. However, published reports indicate that the USDA granted him an exhibitor license in 2005.

In April 2005, the USDA filed a formal complaint against Kollman, alleging multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including:

• Kollman caused injuries to two lions that resulted in the death of one of the lions and lied to investigators about his actions;
• Kollman failed to provide adequate veterinary care to two juvenile lions; used physical abuse to handle the lions; failed to handle them properly to avoid behavioral stress, physical harm and unnecessary discomfort.
• Kollman operated as a dealer without a license.

Kollman is currently appealing these charges, which included the USDA’s revocation of his license.  The USDA stayed the license revocation pending the outcome of this appeal, which is currently at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Kollmann was also cited by the USDA when four big cats died after deworming medication was administered without veterinary supervision.

According to published reports, in January 2008, USDA inspector Carol Porter noted that Ned appeared to be thin. In late October 2008, Porter noted that Ned’s condition had visibly worsened. The USDA confiscated him on November 7. Incredibly, Kollman has publicly stated that Ned was just a picky eater.

It is beyond belief that the USDA granted Kollman an exhibitor license in 2005 and allowed his father simply to turn over the “family business” of animal exploitation to Kollman after the USDA revoked Manuel Ramos’s license in 2000, especially given that the USDA stated that Kollman was complicit in the violations that led to the revocation of his father’s license. The Ramos family has a history of Animal Welfare Act violations going back to 1989.