Amy Bolliger, Guest Blogger,
NonHuman Rights
Project
January 2018
Collectively, we as animal advocates don’t turn away because it is hard to watch. We watch even when it hurts and try to figure out how to not only help these individuals animals but also change the world so that it is more just for all. That’s what the NhRP’s lawsuit is all about.
My earliest memory of what I feel about animal captivity was in my parochial school gymnasium in 1980 when the nuns pulled down a big white projection screen and the entire school viewed the film Born Free, about an orphaned lion club and the humans who helped her. Tears streamed down my face as Joy and George finally released Elsa back into the wild to the life she was born to have.
Later, when my parents took us to the Barnum and Bailey Circus, I cringed
and my stomach ached when I saw the tigers whipped into submission and the
elephants dressed like clowns. One day my friends suggested we visit
SeaWorld, and my thoughts were of whales and dolphins being torn from their
natural environment only to swim in circles for a long meaningless life in
captivity. There was absolutely no awe or entertainment in it for me, and I
wouldn’t be a part of it. The only thing I felt was horrified.
Today, when you ask my children, “Have you ever been to a circus?” Their
response is, “No, because the elephants are abused.” I have heard many times
from friends and family, “The circus is harmless.” Harmless is hardly a word
that would describe being torn from your family and forced to live in chains
in an unnatural environment for decades.
I have always felt that if people stopped for one moment to look at the body
language of these nonhuman animals, they would easily see what I see: the
elephant is swaying back and forth because she is distressed; the captive
orca’s dorsal fin is collapsed because of what you have done to him; the
animals are cowering and performing tricks because they have been beaten
into submission.
When my youngest child was about three years old, a cat scratched her at an
adoption event. The other parents were up in arms. My response to my
daughter was, “He just told you to leave him alone. It’s the only way he has
to communicate that to you.”
I never felt like I quite fit in until I became involved in animal rights as
an adult and began communicating with like-minded individuals who
acknowledged the capacity of other species to suffer just as we do and were
doing what they could to alleviate it. My turning point as an advocate was
in August 2016 when I began speaking to attendees of the Meadowlands State
Fair in East Rutherford, New Jersey about the elephant being forced to give
rides over and over in circles in a blacktop parking lot, no soft grass
anywhere to be found, all while she was threatened with a bullhook and the
teenagers riding her disrespectfully jabbed their feet into her sides as
they laughed.
At the time, I didn’t know the name of the elephant or know how I could get involved to make a change. I only knew that I needed to finally act on the pit in my gut to try to do something about it. So I began to write letters on behalf of the elephant attending the Fair each year. Little did I know that the one elephant was actually three different elephants, Beulah, Karen, and Minnie, one of whom traveled each summer from the Commerford Zoo in Connecticut to East Rutherford.
A Commerford elephant giving rides at the Meadowlands State Fair, August
2017, taken by my sister Kristen Morgan who attends the fair each year.
Kristen questioned the handler in 2016 and was told the elephant was
retiring. However, the same elephant showed up again in 2017. Gun shots were
also fired at the Fair in June 2017.
To help end the suffering of these elephants, I made pleas on social
media for potential fairgoers to boycott the fair and encourage the
organizers to no longer allow Commerford to bring the elephants; if this
happened, the Fair could easily go on without any interruption. I wrote
about the advertising of the elephant performances as “educational.” Had the
people who made the decisions ever taken a moment to view the “elephant
crushing” training videos, which show how humans control these cognitively
and emotionally complex beings? I included YouTube links in my letters. I
also used my Facebook and Instagram accounts to educate people about
elephants and their actual needs versus what we are able to give them in
captivity.
In all of my letter writing on behalf of the Commerford Zoo elephants,
former First Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey Kim Guadagno was the only
government official who responded. Guadagno alerted me to Nosey’s Law and
suggested I reach out to then New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak, who
had co-sponsored the bill. Lesniak was not only easy to reach via social
media but easy to talk to as well. It was a blessing to find out his heart
had always been in the fight to help protect elephants and other animals
from harm. Lesniak’s legislation was approved by the Senate Committee in
September 2016. On January 8, 2018, Nosey’s Law passed the Assembly 62-2-2.
To say that I live in a state that will ban all exotic animals from
traveling circuses and fairs does not fully capture my joy, tears, and
pride.
All of the people who have fought tirelessly for Nosey over the decades
prayerfully await the news from Lawrence County District Judge Terry as to
whether she will continue living a peaceful life in The Elephant Sanctuary
in Tennessee; free of bullhooks, abuse, neglect, performing, and chains. I
am proud to belong to groups like Nosey the Elephant Needs Our Help and
Action for Nosey Now who are truly the voice for the voiceless. While we
wait, I do the only thing left to do, I pray. When my children come home
from school each day, their first question is, “Is Nosey free?”
My family and my two future animal rights activists.
I am also hopeful for Minnie, Beulah, and Karen and the good people of
the Nonhuman Rights Project in their quest to free these elephants to PAWS
sanctuary, which I wholeheartedly support. The NhRP has made it their
mission to provide a voice to those who cannot defend themselves and are so
desperately in need of it. When I heard about the NhRP’s elephant rights
lawsuit, I felt a sense of relief. There are people who know that what is
going on isn’t right and they are doing something about it.
When I hope and pray for the Nonhuman Rights Project and freedom for Beulah,
Karen, and Minnie, I can’t help but remember the famous words of Margret
Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can
change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
Collectively, we as animal advocates don’t turn away because it is hard to
watch. We watch even when it hurts and try to figure out how to not only
help these individuals animals but also change the world so that it is more
just for all. That’s what the NhRP’s lawsuit is all about.
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