‘Free Okha!’ Circus to Face PETA Uproar for Forcing Elderly Elephant to Perform in Lawrenceville
For Immediate Release:
July 1, 2026
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
On Friday, PETA supporters will deploy a life-size “crying elephant” outside the Loomis Bros. Circus at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds with signs reading, “Free Okha!” as they demand the release of “The Elephant Who Was Left Behind”—a 56-year-old, morbidly obese elephant who visibly struggles to move and is still being forced to give rides and perform even though two other elephants exploited alongside her were removed from the circus. Stolen from her home and family in India as a baby, Okha has spent years in cruel isolation and endured decades of abuse, threatened with a sharp metal-tipped bullhook—a weapon used to control elephants through pain and fear.
Her dangerously unhealthy weight puts crushing strain on her aging joints and back, and she struggles to lie down, rise, or even move about. Yet her exhibitor, Brian Franzen—who has previously been charged with felony cruelty to animals and was caught on camera yanking and striking an elephant in the face with a bullhook—continues to drag her from town to town for circus shows.
“Okha has endured decades of misery, forced to perform stupid tricks since the seventies, and now she staggers about in obvious pain, still in servitude to her abuser,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA wants Loomis Bros. to end animal exploitation and for Okha to be sent to a reputable sanctuary where she can get the care she desperately needs.”
When: Friday, July 3, 4 p.m.
Where: Gwinnett County Fairgrounds, 2405 Sugarloaf Pkwy. (near the intersection of Davis Road and Plantation Boulevard), Lawrenceville
Why: In nature, elephants live in matriarchal herds, protect one another, and share mothering responsibilities for the herds’ babies. Yet since 2022, Okha has been kept in isolation. While her two companions were sent to locations where they are no longer forced to perform or give rides, Okha continues to spend much of her life confined to a cramped trailer and circus venue parking lots—denied vital companionship and everything natural and important to her.
Loomis Bros. Circus has a long and sordid history of working with abusive exhibitors who routinely beat and whip animals into submission. Franzen has been cited for a litany of federal animal welfare violations, including for keeping tigers in rusty cages and allowing ponies—one of whom died from apparent neglect—to become dehydrated and emaciated.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
