Chained Elephant at Grundy County Fair Sparks Outrage

Morris, IL — A chained elephant at the Grundy County Fairgrounds has sparked outrage and demands that the elephant be retired from circuses and performing.

A website, Save Nosey Now, is advocating for the release of Nosey. The site claims Nosey has been held alone for nearly three decades and forced into a solitary life. It also says the elephant has chronic health problems, including degenerative joint disease, diarrhea and an abnormal thickening of the skin.

Sign up for the Patch newsletter

Barbara Lovett, Save Nosey Now's head administrator, told Patch she became involved with the fight to save Nosey in 2009 and created the website in 2013.

Nosey was taken from the jungles of Africa at age 2, Lovett said. She’s now 34 years old.

“She’s been abused since she was a tiny baby,” she said. “They’re basically beaten into submission to do what the owner wants them to do.”

Lovett isn’t just aiming to save Nosey, though. She and those behind Save Nosey Now are advocates for the ethical treatment of all elephants, and animals, for that matter.

“We’re going to lose our elephants in the wild if we don’t do something,” Lovett said. “Nosey is a small portion of this.”

Nosey is owned by the Liebel Family Circus, also known as Florida State Family Circus, Great American Family Circus, Liebling Bros. Circus and Liebling Bros. Family Circus, according to PETA, which released a fact sheet detailing the numerous citations the circus has received over the years.

Speaking to CBS Chicago, Franciszka Liebel says her family is the real victim.

“We have to deal with people threatening us, calling us names,” she said in the report.

She also acknowledged the citations and says a settlement reached with the United States Department of Agriculture was the result of a bookkeeping issue.

“That is not any concern about the welfare of the elephant. That was just an administrative error,” she told CBS.

Grundy County Fair Director Burdette Carter told ABC7 that the fair has no reason to believe the elephant is being mistreated.

"They love their animals,” Carter said in the report. “They're not going to let anything happen to these animals. We have the health papers. They're inspected and approved by the USDA."

A phone message left for Carter was not returned Friday.

Minooka resident Rosanna Romano said she was dropping off her daughter for work at the fairgrounds Wednesday morning when she first saw Nosey.

"While I'm driving away, you can see the elephant," Romano told Patch. "You can see she's in distress."

Romano kept thinking about Nosey as she was driving home, then turned around and went back to take pictures.

"The way she was shackled up by her feet, she could only do half a turn," she said. "You know she was out there all night long. No food, no water."

Romano posted her photos on Facebook and within 24 hours she found herself on the news.

At this point, Romano was unaware of Nosey's history or the website created to help her.

"I had no idea who she was. I had investigators reaching out to me who wanted more footage," she said. "To me, it was just a poor animal chained like that."

Next week, Nosey will move on to another location, but Romano doesn't know where and wants to make sure the fight to save Nosey continues.

"There's a sanctuary in Tennessee that wants Nosey," she said. "We want her to be free. My biggest fear is after Tuesday (when Nosey leaves) all this goes silent. I don't want it to go silent and go away again until the next state they show up in. I think that's what's been happening for years."

Romano will join others in a protest scheduled for 2 p.m. July 2 at the Grundy County Fairgrounds, located at 8890 North Illinois Route 47 in Morris.