Send Elephants Tina and Jewel to a Sanctuary

Former circus performers still living in squalid Texas pen

In our September eNews, we reported that we had located two former Cole Bros. Circus elephants, Tina and Jewel, who had vanished from public view after the USDA ordered them taken off the road for health reasons. We eventually located them, and provided video evidence that their housing consisted of a dilapidated tin barn and a tiny outdoor yard surrounded by an electric fence perimeter. After we brought this to light, the elephants' "owner," animal trainer Will Davenport, made minor improvements to comply with bare minimum USDA requirements, but the elephants remain in a cramped and inadequate facility where their health continues to deteriorate.

Meanwhile, The Elephant Sanctuary (TES) has offered to take both Tina and Jewel at no cost to Davenport. Both elephants have endured a life of hardship with the circus, and now they desperately need to be someplace where they can recover from the damage to their bodies. The condition that is causing them to lose weight remains undiagnosed and untreated, so they need our immediate help to avoid meeting the same tragic fate as five other elephants "retired" from Cole Bros. Circus: a premature and avoidable death.

What You Can Do:

  1. Please Take Action to demand that the USDA immediately confiscate these two elephants and send them to TES. To have the most impact, edit the sample letter to express your personal point of view and print it out as a letter to mail.

    The Honorable Chuck Conner
    Secretary of Agriculture
    U.S. Department of Agriculture
    1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
    Washington, DC 20250
    Tel: (202) 720-3631
    Email: chuck.conner@usda.gov

  2. Please also Take Action to urge your federal representative to ask the USDA to intervene on Tina and Jewel's behalf. You can also contact your elected officials by phone and postal mail.

  3. Watch or read "Two elephants and a ton of controversy," an article about Tina and Jewel, then thank reporter Brad Woodard with a polite letter or phone call for doing such a good job.

    Brad Woodard
    1945 Allen Pkwy
    Houston, TX 77019
    Tel: (713) 526-1111

    Learn more about what Tina and Jewel have suffered at the hands of the circus industry.