From http://www.elephants.com/lota.htm

The widely publicized videotape of the transport of Lota to her new home depicted 39-year-old Lota being beaten and dragged into a trailer. She had spent 30 years as a zoo elephant and had no experience being loaded and unloaded for transport. As a result, she was frightened and hesitant to enter the trailer. As the videotape clearly shows, Lota fought her chains, which finally broke, sending her falling backwards and then sliding beneath the trailer. The televised footage of Lota's removal from the zoo and her circus work caused an international outpouring of sympathy for her among animal rights advocates, including actors Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, Bob Barker, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Lota soon became the poster child of captive pachyderms. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) remained silent.

In November of 1996, Lota and 15 other Hawthorn Corporation elephants were diagnosed with tuberculosis. The entire herd was sequestered, and Lota spent a year in chains inside the Hawthorn barn.

The entire animal welfare community grew very familiar with Lota’s saga. The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee repeatedly offered to take Lota. The Humane Society of the United States filed a federal lawsuit in 1992 in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue Lota, claiming violation of the Endangered Species Act. In 1997, the Milwaukee County Board and County Executive F. Thomas Ament, spurred on by PETA, retained legal counsel to attempt to get Lota freed, although the statute of limitations on the transfer had expired.

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