TIA -

The owner of a roadside attraction in Iowa wanted an elephant to give rides and entertain the public. In May 1991, they purchased Tia and sent her to an elephant training facility in Wisconsin. Upon arrival, she was led inside a barn and her legs were shackled. Restrained, she was beaten viciously with baseball bats and ax handles. Her trainers, not satisfied with the stinging pain inflicted by standard electric prods, invented their own version of electrical shock training. They wrapped an electrical cord around an ax handle. They fastened the exposed wires at one end of the cord to two screws embedded in the handle and plugged the other end into an electrical outlet. Each time they pressed the metal screws against her delicate skin, Tia was jolted with a 110-volt electrical current. Confused and terrified, she suffered even more injuries every time she struggled to escape or attempted to defend herself. She remained there for four months.<br>

When the chains were finally removed, she could hardly walk. Tia's physical and psychological abuse left her dispirited and covered with cuts, open wounds and scars. In December 1992, Tia was sent to another dilapidated amusement center in Virginia where elephants were left in the hot sun with no shade and water or chained inside a building with feces-smeared walls and urine-soaked floors. Far short of her 70-year life expectancy, she died there in January 1996.
 

KENNY -

Kenny was born at Ringling's "conservation" facility on Aug. 19, 1994. Like all baby elephants born at Ringling, Kenny's real mother was soon replaced with a surrogate: the bullhook-wielding trainer.  The bullhook, or ankus, has a long handle and a sharp metal hook, and it's used to discipline elephants. Although an elephant's skin is thick, it is sensitive enough for them to feel the pain of an insect bite. Trainers embed the hook into the soft tissue behind the ears and inside the mouth or tender spots under the chin and around the feet. At barely 2 years of age, Kenny, an endangered Asian elephant, was relegated to the status of a clumsy clown as he was shipped around the country in a rail car and made to perform silly tricks. On Jan. 24, 1998, Kenny was clearly very sick when the circus was performing in Jacksonville, Fla. The trauma of being taken from his mother and the rigors of travel likely stressed his delicate immune system. Kenny was nevertheless forced to suffer through two last performances. He died later that evening, alone in his stall and without veterinary care.