http://www.elephants.com/media/chicago_tribune_6_16_05.htm

PETA Sues to Block Elephant Transfer

By Jeff Long
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 16, 2005, 2:59 PM CDT

The plan to send four elephants from a controversial farm in McHenry County to a foundation in Oklahoma affiliated with a circus has sparked a federal lawsuit seeking to block the transfer.

Unable to reach an agreement that would send all 12 of its remaining elephants from its facility in far northwest suburban Richmond to a Tennessee animal sanctuary, Hawthorn Corp. last month obtained U.S. Department of Agriculture permission to transfer four of the animals to the Endangered Ark Foundation in Hugo, Okla.

The move angered the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals because of the foundation's affiliation with the Carson & Barnes Circus. Last week, PETA filed suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to block the transfer. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Monday.

Hawthorn is owned by John Cuneo of Grayslake, scion of a Lake County family that made its fortune in the printing business. Cuneo started Hawthorn in 1957 in Libertyville and built it into one of the largest providers of performing elephants and tigers in the country. The company moved to McHenry County in 1974.

In April 2003, the USDA charged Hawthorn with failing to properly care for its elephants. The firm was cited with 47 violations of the Animal Welfare Act, from failing to cut elephants' toenails to improperly treating an elephant suffering from severe chemical burns and a bacterial infection.

Federal authorities sought to shut down the operation.

In exchange for being able to keep his tigers, Cuneo agreed to give up the elephant herd in March 2004 and has been searching for a suitable home ever since.

Talks with the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn., broke down in March of this year because that facility would not be able to take the elephants until a new barn is completed in September.

Hawthorn then found a home for four of its elephants. But PETA stepped in, and now, everything is on hold.

A PETA official said the group makes make no distinction between Carson & Barnes and the Endangered Ark Foundation, a not-for-profit organization founded by the same family that owns the circus.

"It's the same facility," said Debbie Leahy, the organization's director of captive animals and entertainment issues. "They both have the same phone number. They have the same facilities."

Barbara Byrd, whose grandfather founded the circus 69 years ago and whose father founded the foundation in 1993, said profits from the circus pay for the animals' care at the foundation.

"They're either retired, or because of age are not suitable for performing," Byrd said.

Hawthorn lawyer Derek Shaffer said today that the company's agreement with Endangered Ark says the four elephants would not be used as circus animals.

"We view it as a retirement community for elephants," Shaffer said, "and an outstanding one that provides the highest standard of care, and will love them and care for them for the rest of their lives."

Shaffer said that once the transfer to Endangered Ark is complete, talks will resume with the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee to send the remaining seven female elephants there. The sanctuary is not set up to take the herd's single bull elephant, which will have to find a home elsewhere.

-- Anchorage Daily News