‘Free Okha!’ Museum of the Southwest to Face PETA Uproar Over Elderly Elephant at Arts Festival
For Immediate Release:
September 11, 2026
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
On Saturday, PETA supporters will rally outside SeptemberFest at the Museum of the Southwest with a life-size “crying elephant” and a banner reading, “Free Okha: Desperate, Beaten, and Chained”—as the elderly elephant appears at the museum’s weekend festival—urging the museum to cut ties with exhibitor Brian Franzen and support sending Okha to a reputable sanctuary. Known as “The Elephant Who Was Left Behind,” Okha is 56 years old, morbidly obese, and visibly struggles to move, yet is still being forced to give rides and perform at events. Stolen from her home and family in India as a baby, Okha has spent years in 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 often appears slow to lie down or get up. Yet 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 and other events.
“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 Foundation Managing Director of Captive Wildlife Debbie Metzler. “This arts festival should celebrate creativity without cruelty, and PETA is calling on the Museum of the Southwest to end its involvement with elephant exhibitors and for Okha to be sent to a reputable sanctuary where she will finally get the care she needs.”
When: Saturday, September 12, 12 noon, and Sunday, September 13, 12 noon
Where: Museum of the Southwest, 1705 W. Missouri Ave., Midland (near West Missouri Avenue and South K Street)
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.
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.
