Emily is a 61-year-old Asian elephant whose life has been one of deprivation that began when she was captured in the wild and taken as a baby from her mother in 1968, imported to the US, and sent to the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford, MA. For over 15 years, from 1968 to 1983, Emily was held in solitary confinement without companions to offer the social support elephants, both wild and captive, so desperately need. Current AZA rules require a minimum of three female elephants in zoo habitats.

Emily spent two horrific years in the Baton Rouge Zoo in Louisiana, from 1983 to 1985, where she was moved after the Buttonwood Park Zoo was found to be in violation of USDA animal welfare regulations related to Emily’s care and the inadequate habitat where she was held. While in the Baton Rouge Zoo, Emily was expected to assimilate into an established group of elephants and was attacked by one of the older elephants. She also endured severe and painful training methods designed to force her into submission by former circus handlers. In 1985, after a new indoor enclosure had been erected for her, Emily was transferred back to the Buttonwood Park Zoo, where she has remained ever since.

In 1986, the zoo acquired Ruth, another wild-born Asian elephant who had endured even greater suffering and deprivation before she was sent to Buttonwood. Emily and Ruth were kept together until Ruth’s death in 2024, but their relationship was not a happy one. They were not compatible and Ruth was attacked by Emily on several occasions. This behavior is not uncommon among captive elephants who are not allowed the freedom of choosing companions and are often forced into involuntary social pairings or groups, held in cramped and unnatural spaces, and subjected to chronic emotional and physical stress. In December 2024, Ruth was euthanized because of debilitating arthritis and foot disease, and once again Emily found herself alone.

The total acreage of the Buttonwood Park Zoo is just 7 acres, and Emly has been confined to a small, man-made environment that is a just a fragment of that, one which cannot begin to meet even her most basic physical, social, and emotional needs, let alone allow her to thrive. Elephants cannot tolerate severe cold and are susceptible to frostbite at temperatures of 42 degrees or below. During New Bedford’s harsh winters, Emily is kept in a small indoor space, but her outdoor space is equally inadequate and cramped, with little to no enrichment provided to replicate that found in her natural habitat. In the wild, elephants as herd animals roam vast distances, forage for their food, and engage in a wide range of instinctive behaviors, developing complex and intricate social bonds and networks that are crucial to their emotional and mental well-being, networks that are denied captive elephants like Emily.

Elephants endure great hardships in captivity, both physical and psychological, developing debilitating illnesses such as arthritis, herpes, obesity, and mental distress. Emily suffers from severe osteoarthritis and foot disease, and exhibits the classic stereotypic behavior that has come to define the emotional toll taken on captive elephants: 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. Emily, like all captive elephants, has limited or no 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.

After a lifetime of suffering, Emily deserves dignity, peace, and the chance to simply be an elephant for the first time in her life. The Buttonwood Park Zoo still has the opportunity to do the right thing: release Emily to an accredited elephant sanctuary that can offer her the best geriatric care possible and provide plenty of space, where she can live in a natural habitat that allows her to roam, forage for her food, form social bonds of her own choosing, and finally experience the freedom denied her for 57 years. If she remains at Buttonwood until she dies, she will never again hear the voice of another elephant or experience elephant companionship that is fundamental to their existence.