Emily is a 61 year old Asian elephant, currently living alone at the Buttonwood Park Zoo. She was captured in 1968, taken as a baby from her mother and sent to the United States. From 1968 to 1983, Emily was the only elephant at Buttonwood, living without companions to offer the social support elephants so desperately need. And, despite AZA rules which require a minimum of three female elephants in zoo habitats, Emily lives alone once again, following the 2024 death of Ruth, Buttonwood Zoo's other neglected wild-born Asian elephant.

Although Emily and Ruth lived together at the zoo from 1986 until 2024, their relationship was not a happy one. Unfortunately, this kind of incompatibility between captive elephants can be fairly common. In the wild, elephants are free to choose their companions, often forming complex social bonds and traveling great distances with their herd. In the confines of captivity, elephants are subjected to chronic emotional and physical stress, denied the opportunity to form natural social bonds and seek environmental enrichment.

Throughout her life at Buttonwood, Ruth suffered tremendously. In January 2014, Ruth sustained serious hypothermia and frostbite on her ears, tail, and genitals when the elephants’ handler failed to secure the barn door for the evening during a blizzard. Ruth would experience complications from this neglect for the rest of her life and, in December 2024, she was euthanized because of debilitating arthritis and foot disease.

Buttonwood Park Zoo is only seven acres and Emily’s enclosure, a fraction of that size, is inadequate for the needs of an elephant. During the winter, when elephants are susceptible to frostbite at temperatures of 42 degrees or below, Emily is kept indoors in a small barn. Her outdoor area is similarly cramped and bare, offering little opportunity to forage and explore.

Emily exhibits many of the stereotypical behaviors of an elephant in captivity: repetitive swaying and head-bobbing, pacing and circling — actions induced by frustration and repeated attempts to cope, which studies show can lead to central nervous system dysfunction and severe psychological damage. She has limited opportunity to express independent decisions in her daily activity or have autonomy over her life, which can exacerbate these behaviors during the day and at night. She is in distress, but there is an antidote.

We urge Buttonwood Park Zoo to do the right thing and release Emily to an accredited elephant sanctuary, where she can receive the best care, while seeking environmental enrichment and forming social attachments of her choosing. In response to requests that Emily be sent to a sanctuary, Buttonwood often asserts that Emily prefers her human keepers to the company of other elephants. But, like most captive elephants, she has never been allowed the opportunity make her own connections. If Emily remains at Buttonwood until she dies, she will never again roam free or hear the voice of another elephant. Please join us.