PETA Statement: Dismissal Means Peace for Nosey the Elephant

For Immediate Release:
November 4, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA Foundation Deputy Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Rachel Mathews in response to today’s dismissal in Lawrence County Circuit Court of an appeal by Hugo and Franciszka Liebel, who sought to overturn a Lawrence County District Court order vesting custody of Nosey the elephant with a Lawrence County animal control officer:

Today’s dismissal means that Nosey the elephant remains safe from the people who used her aching body for rides and left her—lame and swaying back and forth in her own waste—in a dark trailer. At her new sanctuary home, she finally gets to enjoy the outdoors, take dust baths, relax in a mud wallow, and roam acres of forests and hills—so PETA thanks the Lawrence County officials who stepped in to save her when so many other people had failed her.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment,” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—has been campaigning on Nosey’s behalf since 2004. Over the years, we persuaded venues and authorities to bar Liebel’s elephant act, worked with elephant experts, engaged members of Congress, and obtained celebrity support in favor of Nosey’s release to an accredited sanctuary. Last month, Liebel’s federal license was terminated.

More information is available here.