An elephant left a troubled Virginia zoo. Advocates fear her life got worse.

Last year it seemed like Asha was finally heading for the storybook retirement she deserved.

The now-41-year-old elephant had lived a bruising, lonely life. She was plucked from the African Savannah when she was a baby, then spent the majority of her days at the troubled Natural Bridge Zoo in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. There she gave hundreds of rides a day, and allegedly lived chained up in a dirty barn, swaying to “soothe herself and relieve boredom and stress,” a witness would say.

Animal advocates spent years calling for her release. Some went undercover with hidden cameras to film her conditions. They filed complaints with state authorities. A billboard went up calling for her release. And in December 2023, when Virginia officials announced they had raided Natural Bridge and confiscated hundreds of animals, they thought their campaign had worked.

It hadn’t. In June, Natural Bridge posted on Facebook that Asha had been “retired to a sanctuary.” But records show that days prior to the raid, Asha was moved to Two Tails Ranch, another privately-owned zoo in Florida that had been investigated by state authorities and been the subject of numerous complaints by animal rights groups.

Advocates are now worried she’s gone from one bad situation to another.

“We have been successful to a greater or lesser degree campaigning for animals to get their freedom. We had hoped to do that with Asha,” said Fleur Dawes, director of communications and international partnerships for In Defense of Animals (IDA), an international nonprofit that advocates for the release of elephants from zoos and circuses. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Natural Bridge Zoo and Two Tails Ranch did not respond to multiple questions about Asha’s removal to Florida and her current situation.

Troubled Past

Like many elephants populating American zoos and circuses, Asha was taken from her mother when she was around 2 years old, according to an online database that has tracked the location and movements of nearly 9,000 elephants living in captivity since 1995.

She eventually ended up at Natural Bridge in 1985. The abrupt transition to the zoo likely had a deep impact on her mental health, according to Courtney Scott, an elephant consultant for IDA.

“That’s a young age and right there you have trauma,” Scott said. “Then she’s taken to a place where she has to do riding, and the training for that is always brutal. She really has had no time or opportunity to do anything else but be exploited.”

IDA first raised alarms about Asha’s living conditions in 2014, when Natural Bridge was listed first on the organization’s “Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants” ranking. The organization alleged Asha was kept in isolation, forced to carry riders and trained using a bullhook, a steel-tipped training tool that earlier this year was banned in Virginia.

That same year, an investigator with the Humane Society of the United States went undercover as an employee at the facility from May through October 2014. The investigator filmed discussions with Natural Bridge’s staff, including conversations about Asha.

The videos indicate the staff viewed Asha as a potential threat rather than an animal in their care.

“One of the worst things you can ever do to an elephant is let it learn that it can make a decision,” a trainer said in the video. “The only time you hit an elephant is for intimidation, to show them that you can.”

Years later, a Natural Bridge employee would testify to state investigators that they often saw Asha chained up in a barn, left standing in her own urine and feces. The witness reported seeing Asha give 359 rides over a two-day period.

Elephant rides, as well as other tourism experiences involving physical contact between animals and guests, have been increasingly on the wane due to media campaigns by groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and World Animal Protection. In 2016, the popular online travel booking site Tripadvisor announced it would no longer sell tickets to excursions involving human-animal interactions — a direct result of conversations between the company and animal rights groups.

In December 2023, Virginia state officials announced they had raided Natural Bridge, part of an animal cruelty investigation that sought to rehome the animals in new facilities and sanctuaries.

One hundred and twenty animals were taken from Natural Bridge during the December 2023 search. Included in the roundup was a white Bengal tiger that veterinarians determined had to be euthanized. At a six-day jury trial earlier this year, a jury sided with the state, awarding custody of 71 animals to regulators.

Asha, however, had been removed before Virginia authorities came knocking.

“Had she been on [the] property, she would have been seized in the raid and probably now would be at an actual elephant sanctuary,” said Robin Vitulle, president of Free All Captive Elephants (FACE), a national nonprofit that advocates for the release of elephants from zoos and circuses. “It’s devastating that she was not on property.”

Life in Florida

Two Tails Ranch sits on 67 acres outside of Gainesville, Fla. Founded in 1984, the ranch is currently owned and managed by Patricia Zerbini, whose family has run a touring circus for decades. In a 2021 interview with the Ocala Gazette, Zerbini said Two Tails was not an elephant sanctuary or rescue but a privately-owned facility offering visitors an up-close experience with elephants.

Elephants are central to Two Tails, according to the facility’s website. Among its offerings: guided tours of the sanctuary — $20 dollars for adult admission — as well as $5 for the opportunity to feed an elephant; $25 for a photo opportunity; and $40 per person for an elephant ride. For $200, a visitor can get an “extreme experience” that is “one of its kind found in the United States and Canada” that includes up-close time with an elephant.

Elephants can also be rented from Two Tails for “special occasions and private parties,” including “traditional Indian ceremonies Weddings, Bharat, etc. Museums, schools, hospitals, zoos, fairs, circuses, display, private parties, parades, republican conventions [sic].”

Two Tails has also been the subject of complaints from animal rights groups, leading to scrutiny from state and federal regulators. The facility was cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for failing to quarantine and contain elephants exposed to tuberculosis in 2011, 2008 and 2005. The USDA also cited Two Tails in 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009, 2005 and 2004 for failing to have proper fencing and sturdy housing in place for elephants.

In December 2001, Two Tails paid a $2,250 civil penalty to the USDA to settle past violations of federal regulations, such as failure to give proper veterinary care to an elephant, failure to provide elephants with shade, and failing to maintain clean premises, according to records complied by PETA.

In August 2013, Two Tails’s lack of secure perimeter fencing led to an elephant attacking a woman who had approached the animal to take a picture. The attack resulted in life-threatening injuries to the woman, and Two Tails was fined $857, according to the Ocala StarBanner.

Last December, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also began an investigation into Asha’s relocation from Natural Bridge to Two Tails. In an official report submitted to the state and reviewed by The Washington Post, a Florida-based veterinarian claimed the animal was moved to Florida, before the raid, due to a “critical veterinary case.” But Florida officials had never issued the permit for Asha to be transferred.

The vet emailed state officials about the transfer on Dec. 1, when Asha was already in a trailer leaving Virginia for Florida. In an interview with investigators, the vet said “he could not wait 90 days for a permit and there was no way for him to contact FWC to do what he needed to do quickly” due to gastrointestinal issues “that may have been related to previous dental issues.”

Two Tails’s Zerbini, however, told investigators she had been told the proper permits were in place for Asha’s transfer. She added the elephant “did not have a medical emergency but knew at one time she had a bad tooth,” according to the commission’s report.

“It made more sense,” the report noted, for the Florida vet who signed off on the documents to “travel to [Natural Bridge Zoo] rather than the elephant be transported to Florida.” As such, the investigator concluded Asha had been shipped “into Florida without acquiring an approved importation permit.”

A written warning was issued to the Florida-based veterinarian involved in the transfer. (The veterinarian did not respond to a request for comment.)

Two Tails’s owner and the Florida vet denied the move was prompted by a tip-off about the Virginia raid, according to the report. Zerbini told state investigators she had been talking with Natural Bridge’s management about taking on Asha since 2019. She also “implied that the circumstances surrounding the Natural Bridge search warrant was nonsense,” the Florida report noted.

The report also presented a snapshot of Asha’s new conditions — igniting new fears among advocates about the animal’s Florida life.

According to the document, a Florida state investigator visited Asha at Two Tails in late December 2023. The elephant then appeared in good health and had no apparent “wounds including those indicative of misuse of a bullhook,” the report said.

But the document also noted that Asha’s trainer “was somewhat antagonistic towards me,” and “his first words to me were him ordering me not to call the elephant by name,” the official wrote. The report noted when Asha blew water in the investigator’s direction, the trainer responded “she was a good elephant for spitting on me.”

A spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said there are currently no open investigations into Two Tails.

But for the advocates across the country who have followed Asha’s life and worked for her release, her removal and new home feels like an opportunity lost.

“Because she was technically moved illegally, does that mean this could be reversed?” said Denise Gaug, FACE’s co-founder and vice president. “We don’t know. It’s an unprecedented situation.”

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Fernande Dalal

Update: 2024-08-13

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