Handling of Elephants in Captivity

This letter is written for all those who wrote concerned over the cruelty to the helpless and frightened elephant being transferred to a new home.

Sometime before this occurred, I taped a “Videolog” showing the reunion of an old man and his pet elephant after a 15-year separation. She had not seen her owner for 15 years but when he called she came ambling across the space separating them, “hugged him,” and went through all her tricks while he fed her jelly beans and patted and loved her.

He is not in good health and left her at the zoo feeling that she would receive the loving care he could no longer give her. When he left she followed him to the exit and stretched out her trunk to his hand in a loving farewell. I cried. This beautiful little episode is well worth the watching and will help eradicate the memory of man’s cruelty to his fellow creatures.

VIOLET M. ASHTON

Huntington Park