It's an Elephant's Life Chained Circus Slaves After years of abuse, do Lota and Calle have a chance for happiness? from PeTA's Animal Times, Winter 1997

"How do you . . . express . . . that you will be haunted by a sight and sound forever?" --Rachel Anastasi, former Milwaukee Journal Sentinal zoo reporter

Lota and Calle were born into free-roaming herds in Asia. For them, life would have been very different without the circus. They would have spent their entire lives at their mothers' sides in a family of sisters, aunts and cousins, enjoying long childhoods, playing with other youngsters, cooling off in waterholes and dozing in the shade under the vast skies of their native lands. Gradually they would have learned how to care for the herd's newborns. Eventually they would have had the joy of raising their own families. But Lota and Calle were captured, taken away from their mothers and shipped to the United States. During the decades that followed, Lota and Calle served their masters--in circuses, tawdry sideshows and zoos, always under threat of physical punishment. There were no days off, no escape from the endless miles in the back of dark, poorly ventilated trucks, no escape from the searing heat, the bitter cold, and the chains. Always the chains. Now, ages 45 and 31, they are sick with tuberculosis, yet the people who exploit them say they will not allow them to retire to a sanctuary where they could recover and where, at last, they could experience freedom. We hope you will join the hundreds of people now working for Lota's and Calle's release.
Lota's Story
Lota was born in India in 1952. At the age of 6, she was trapped and sold to the Milwaukee County Zoo in Wisconsin. For the next 32 years, Lota was confined to a small, concrete stall, nothing more than a living museum piece. Lota was "trained" to behave by elephant "consultant" Don Meyer, who has been captured on video repeatedly digging sharp bullhooks into elephants' tender skin and ignoring the screams of injured, frightened elephants. In 1990, zoo officials passed Lota on to the Hawthorne Corporation in Illinois because, like many elephants imprisoned for years, she had become "aggressive." On the day she was forced from the only "home" she had known since infancy, the terrified Lota refused to move and was roped, chained, beaten and dragged from her stall. Witnesses said that blood flowed from the back of the moving truck. Hawthorn, Lota's new "home," an animal-leasing business begun by millionaire John Cuneo, was a large, dark shed, in which chained elephants were warehoused until Cuneo could rent them out. In 1994, Lota was sent to perform at the Walker Bros. Circus. In May 1996, the Hawthorn Corporation was fined $12,500 for violations of animal welfare laws. That August, Hawthorn elephants Hattie and Joyce collapsed and died of tuberculosis. The exhausted animals had been forced to perform up until their deaths. By October of that year, Lota was also obviously ill but she, too, was still forced to travel and perform. Suspecting that Lota had tuberculosis, Florida officials turned the circus back at the state line. In February 1997, Walker Bros. Circus was fined by the US government for failing to provide veterinary care, for hiring inexperienced animal handlers and for transporting animals in unsafe vehicles. Hawthorn's licence to exhibit aniamls was suspended for 21 days when Cuneo was caught trying to ship a baby elephant with tuberculosis to Puerto Rico. As we go to print, although Lota is still in the hands of a company that will rent her out to circuses, unaware that so many are fighting for her freedom, Milwaukee County is suing John Cuneo for custody of Lota so that she can be retired.

YOU CAN HELP:
Politely urge the American Zoological Association (AZA) to develop and enforce regulations stating that no AZA-accredited zoo can sell, loan or give an elephant to any circus or organization that supplies elephants to circuses:
David L. Towne
President
AZA
c/o Woodland Park Zoo
5500 Phinney Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98103
Fax: 206-684-4854

Calle's Story
Calle was born in Asia in 1966. As a 1-year-old, she was captured, taken from her mother, shipped to the US and sold to a "trainer" named Howard Johnson. For the next 20 years, Calle was rented to circusese all over North America and then used as a "prop" in a Las Vegas show. When the show closed, Calle was kept chained in the dark hotel basement. In 1987, Calle was sold to a new "owner" who put her to work giving rides to children. Three years later, Calle was sold again. In 1991, while traveling with a circus in Mexico, the trailer carrying Calle flipped completely over and she was injured. Two years later, Calle ended up at the Los Angeles Zoo. After so many years of harsh treatment, Calle may have finally cracked. She injured a zoo handler in October 1996 and the zoo shipped her back to Johnson to house while they decided her fate. It wasn't until April 1997 that the Los Angeles Zoo admitted that Calle had been suffering from tuberculosis. Calle was moved again, this time to the San Francisco Zoo and housed alone. Today Calle is 31. She remains all alone at the San Francisco Zoo. We need your help to get her released to a sanctuary.
YOU CAN HELP:
Write to:
Director
Los Angeles Zoo
5333 Zoo Dr.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Ask him to release Calle to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.