helpelephants / CC

When we heard that during a recent USDA inspection of Maximus Tons of Fun LLC—an elephant act performing with Shrine Circuses—inspectors found that Tina, Jewel, and Boo, three elephants traveling with Maximus Tons of Fun, have lost a combined 1,280 pounds over the last year, we were outraged.

While dropping some pounds to get your body beach ready may seem like a good idea for you, this amount of weight loss could indicate that these elephants are suffering from a potentially deadly illness or are not being provided with adequate food and proper nutrition. We've filed a complaint with the USDA and asked that it ensure that these elephants are taken off the road immediately.

This isn't the first time that Tina and Jewel have been in danger because of severe weight loss. In 2007, Tina and Jewel were traveling with Cole Bros. Circus when a whistleblower reported that the elephants were emaciated. After we filed a complaint with the USDA, the elephants were removed from the road to recover, but it wasn't long before they were forced to rejoin the circus.

We're hoping that the USDA will act swiftly to ensure that these animals are pulled off the road again—and this time, permanently.

Luckily, some people are getting the message that all elephants who are forced into the circus industry are plagued with chronic illness and lead lives full of misery. Garden City Circus and an entire city in Queensland, Australia, have completely removed animals from their circus performances.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

Update: There was a great investigative report on this issue that was on KHOU-TV this week. Check it out here.

Our Captive Animals department has been working overtime on a case involving two elephants named Tina and Jewel. The elephants belong to Cole Bros., a circus that was assessed a $10,000 penalty by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for abusing elephants with bullhooks. To make a long story short, after confirming a whistleblower report stating that Jewel was emaciated, we filed a complaint with the USDA, leading to the removal of both elephants from the road. But now they are being housed at an unapproved facility in TX, and according to one recent inspection, an elephant expert “determined that both elephants showed an alarming amount of weight loss.”

Cole Bros. is leasing the elephants to the family that formerly operated the King Royal Circus, until its USDA license was permanently revoked when a young African elephant named Heather was found dead in a crowded, overheated trailer. Lovely.

Please help us convince the USDA to confiscate the elephants and relocate them to The Elephant Sanctuary, where they can receive proper nourishment and veterinary care from qualified elephant caretakers. You can take action here.