PETA Statement on Elephant’s Escape From Entertainment Company

For Immediate Release:
November 12, 2018

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA Foundation Deputy Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Rachel Mathews in response to Sunday’s escape of an elephant from a facility owned by the Dawn Animal Agency:

Elephants love to roam, browse, and forage over vast distances with their loved ones, but this lonely captive elephant hasn’t had the company of other elephants in years, and her only glimpse of freedom was a few minutes on a dark, cold back road in New York. This dangerous incident is just one reason among many—not the least of which is the cruel training methods that these animals endure—why elephants belong in nature or in sanctuaries, not in roadside zoos or exhibitors’ menageries.

The Dawn Animal Agency is an entertainment company (for instance, it has supplied camels and other animals to Radio City Music Hall) and not a sanctuary, as reported.

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment,” and more information about captive elephants is available here.