Today, many circus elephants in Europe are reaching old age. “She is used to having at least one of us nearby,” Kruse told me. According to the European Elephant Group (EEG), based in Germany, there are just shy of 100 circus elephants left in Europe. It was at the Tennessee sanctuary that workers witnessed the extraordinary reunion of two former circus elephants, Shirley and Jenny, in 1999. For years, she and Verhulst tried to make contact with the Freiwald circus family in the Netherlands, owners of that country’s most famous elephant, Buba, but they never got a reply.

Source: The Guardian June 08, 2021 04:52 UTC