On September 15, 2019, the Nonhuman Rights Project's elephant client Beulah collapsed and died at the Big E fair after the Commerford Zoo exploited her for money one final time. A few days later the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed that Karen, an African elephant owned by the Commerford Zoo, had died in March 2019. Both Beulah and Karen suffered for decades as a result of their forced labor and regular transport to events across the Northeast, but their lives were no less terrible when they were imprisoned on the Commerford Zoo property in Goshen, CT. For over 40 years, the state of Connecticut and the federal government allowed Beulah and Karen to suffer as the "property" of the Commerford Zoo, despite the business having been cited over 50 times for violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Many people have observed Beulah, Karen, and Minnie, the Commerford Zoo's other elephant, being jabbed with sharp bullhooks, engaging in stereotypic behavior, and visibly distressed, yet enforcement officials and lawmakers did nothing.

It's time for state lawmakers representing Goshen, CT to take a stand and urge the Commerford Zoo to send Minnie, its sole surviving elephant, to either The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee or the Performing Animal Welfare Society.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Please ask State Representative Maria Horn and State Senator Craig Miner to publicly urge the Commerford Zoo to send Minnie to sanctuary and to take legislative action to prohibit the keeping of elephants in captivity in Connecticut.