An Entertainment Abuses Article used with permission from All-Creatures.org

Courtney Scott shares a powerful reflection from David Walega, who contrasts the trajectory of his own life to that of Emily’s over the past six decades.

Emily the Elephant is Still at Buttonwood Park Zoo Since 1968
From Courtney Scott, IDA In Defense of Animals, idausa.org
September 2026

Photo from David Walega

For more than 25 years, photographer and animal advocate David Walega has documented the lives of elephants confined in zoos. In this poignant guest commentary, accompanied by his own photographs, he shines a light on 61-year-old Emily, who has spent 58 years incarcerated in zoos — all but three of them at Buttonwood Park Zoo in the frigid climate of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Emily’s story is echoed in zoos everywhere, where aging elephants are left to die without ever knowing the freedom to roam, forage, mate, and form friendships with elephants of their choosing. After reading, please take action on the alert at the end of this blog to help make Emily’s retirement to a warm, spacious sanctuary a reality before it is too late.

Emily was moved to Buttonwood Park Zoo in 1968, the year I was born.

Emily is a wild-born Asian elephant, taken from her family when she was three years old. By the time I was old enough to visit her, Emily had already become part of the landscape of growing up here.

As schoolchildren, I remember gathering our quarters together to help pay for her care. We visited often, the elephant exhibit the center of our trip. Generations of children grew up in the area knowing and loving Emily.

Photo from David Walega

I grew up and moved away. Emily stayed.

At eighteen, I left home for college in New York City. For the first time, I met people from cultures and places I had never known, and the world became much larger.

I traveled west after school and made Seattle my home for eighteen years. I fell in and out of love. I traveled the world with my work. I saw places I never imagined I would see and accumulated the experiences and memories that make up a life.

Emily remained at the zoo.

I moved again, this time to Los Angeles, chasing the sun and leaving the clouds of the Northwest behind. I struggled. I had successes and failures. I changed jobs and created art. My life kept changing.

Emily remained at the zoo.

I came back to Massachusetts, just before COVID became a worldwide pandemic. Almost overnight, the world became very small and intense. We stayed inside while an unknown virus spread across the continents. It felt unnatural to be confined, not knowing what lay ahead.

By then, Emily had spent more than four decades within the boundaries of Buttonwood Park Zoo.

She had a roommate for a while, a partner who was not compatible. They fought and never bonded. Ruth died, and Emily again was alone.

In the wild

Elephants are extremely social animals. They travel together, protect their young, care for one another, and mourn their dead. Knowledge passes between generations. They can travel hundreds of miles a day with the herd. An elephant’s life is built around constant movement, relationships, and memory.

Emily had been taken from that world when she was three.

Photo from David Walega

One day in July

Last month, I went to visit her.

Emily stood beside a pile of dirt. She threw dust over her back.
I watched her for about five minutes.

She then turned around and walked back into the barn.

She didn’t come out again.

I thought about everything that I had experienced since being a child who once brought quarters to school for Emily.

I’ve had all these experiences of a life, one that is still evolving.

Emily arrived here the year I was born.

I have spent a lifetime leaving and returning.

Emily is still here.

See David’s Substack here.

Take action on our alert to free Emily.

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Posted on All-Creatures.org: September 18, 2026
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