THE HILL COUNTRY ELEPHANT PRESERVE AT FREDERICKSBURG, TX
The Preserve operates under the business formerly known as Have Trunk Will Travel — a supplier with a documented history of elephant abuse spanning decades.
For years, Kari and Gary Johnson ran Have Trunk Will Travel, a traveling exhibit that exploited elephants like Tai and Dixie for trivial Hollywood gigs and events. Witnesses reported that the Johnsons used bullhooks—cruel weapons resembling fireplace pokers—to hit and yank the elephants.
After California banned these tools, the Johnsons relocated to Texas and rebranded their operation as “The Preserve.” Despite its name, The Preserve subjects elephants to unnatural acts such as standing on their heads, painting, and playing instruments under the threat of punishment. In the wild, elephants live fulfilling lives, socializing, swimming, exploring, and playing freely. The use of violence to force them into performance is a clear example of speciesism—discrimination based solely on an animal’s species.
Many people are questioning The Elephant Preserve in Fredericksburg, TX, which is actually owned and operated by the same business, Have Trunk Will Travel (HTWT). HTWT has a history of supplying elephants for circuses, rides, parties, film, and advertising. Melinda Pharr, founder of Elephants Austin, has visited The Preserve multiple times and found that its practices do not align with true sanctuary standards.
UNCOVER INVESTIGATION SHOWS THE ELEPHANT PRESERVE HAS BEEN ABUSING ELEPHANTS FOR DECADES
HTWT staffers use bullhooks and have been the target of campaigns by animal groups. One of them is Animal Defenders International, a California group that conducted an 8-week undercover investigation showing trainers, including Kari Johnson, beating and striking elephants with a bullhook, as well as hooking a baby elephant inside the roof of its mouth and using stun guns to shock the elephants. In a letter to Congress, HTWT even defended using electric shocking devices on elephants.
An elephant used in the making of a high-profile Hollywood film died at an animal facility in Texas — one accused for decades of mistreating its animals.
Tai was a 55-year-old female Asian elephant who became most famous after being used in the 2011 film Water For Elephants. She was residing at The Elephant Preserve in the Texas Hill Country, which on May 7, sent out an email to its subscribers saying she died “after a brief illness.” On the phone, a spokesperson from The Preserve said she died of kidney failure.
Tai is the second elephant to have died at The Preserve: Dixie, another 55-year-old, reportedly died due to kidney failure. Tai and Dixie were two of five Asian elephants — along with Kitty, Rosie, and Becky — all captured from the wild.
If you care about animals, do not visit the Preserve.
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LOOKING FOR AN ETHICAL ELEPHANT
EXPERIENCE IN TEXAS?
The honest answer is that no facility in Texas currently meets the criteria of a true sanctuary.
If you want to support elephants ethically, the most meaningful thing you can do is support organisations working where the elephants actually belong.
RETETI ELEPHANT SANCTUARY · SAMBURU, NORTHERN KENYA
Reteti is Africa’s first community-owned elephant sanctuary — run by the Samburu people of northern Kenya to rescue, rehabilitate, and release orphaned elephants back into the wild.
No performances. No training. No bullhooks.
Elephants are here because they need to be — and they leave when they are ready. A portion of proceeds from my books and prints supports Reteti directly.
WHAT ETHICAL SUPPORT LOOKS LIKE
I have spent years photographing elephants in the wild — in Amboseli, where the last super tuskers still walk the earth.
Tim. Ulysses. Craig. All three now gone. All three photographed in freedom, on their own terms, in the landscape that made them.
Every fine art print from this collection is a document of what we still have. And an argument for keeping it.
The best thing you can do for an elephant is leave it where it belongs.
There are a few telltale signs you can look for to determine if a facility with animals is a true sanctuary that is not exploiting animals or involved in cruel, inhumane treatment:
- No human interaction. no rides, no selfies, no petting, no bathing, no nothing.
- No performances or shows. If wild animals are forced to do any routine, it’s safe to assume that cruelty was used to persuade them to do so. Even seemingly innocuous activities such as bathing or petting require coercion.
- No cages. The animals have the freedom to move at will, in a natural setting, and with other animals of their own kind. But they must be kept separate behind barriers from people since people can quickly get hurt.
Sanctuaries do not breed animals for captivity.
How elephants are “trained” for the tourism industry. There is no ethical way to train an elephant.
