Kenny
On January 24, 1998, while the circus was in Jacksonville, Florida, 3-year-old Kenny was obviously very sick. According to the circus’s animal care log, Kenny was “not eating or drinking,” was “bleeding from his rectum … had a hard time standing, was very [shaky], walked very slowly.” Yet this seriously ill baby elephant was forced to perform in three shows. The log further notes that Kenny “passed a large amount of blood from his rectum,” and at 11:30 p.m., “the elephant was dead.”

An internal USDA e-mail message concerning Kenny’s death reads, “The case shows that orders from the attending veterinarian to leave Kenny in his stall during the 3rd performance on the day he died were not followed by the trainers, Mark Oliver Gebel and Gunther Gebel Williams.” The USDA charged the circus with failure to provide veterinary care to Kenny, and Ringling paid $20,000 to settle the case out of court.

The undue stress of training, travel, and performance, as well as the premature separation from his mother, would have weakened Kenny’s delicate immune system, making him susceptible to illness. According to wildlife veterinarian Simon Adams, MRCVS, “[I]t has been well documented … that moving young calves, male or female, from their mothers, causes severe immunosuppression and actual depression, which are not only life-threatening to the calf but tend to lead to clinical infectious diseases such as TB, pneumonia, septicemia, [and] herpes.” Had Kenny been allowed to remain with his mother until at least age 5, he might possibly still be alive.
 

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