Free at Last — Shirley Joins the Elephant Sanctuary After Fifty Years in Captivity
http://blog.therainforestsite.com/freetheelephant/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=trsfan&utm_campaign=freetheelephant&utm_term=20150604
= new reply since forum marked as read
but to think of all those Shirleys who will never get that chance 
the abuse of elephants is getting a lot of attention. I hope it leads to the release of more and more Shirleys. You did a good part in keeping the light shining. 
Elephants are incredibly intelligent, sentient beings, much more advanced than humans, imo. Humans are the brutes in this world, not the beautiful and innocent beings we exploit.
Thank goodness there are some kind humans, who work to repair the damage the vicious ones do to all the Shirleys out there, but there shouldn't be anything to repair. These wondrous beings should have been living for decades with their families in the wild.
Thank you for being there for elephants.
Now I'll have my cry. 
MoonRiver napkinzPoor Shirley was injured by another elephant slave in the circus. Those horrendous conditions would drive many into aggression, a trait that, in the wild, is practically non-existent to elephants.
Travel. Circus. Abuse. Decades alone. Thank God Shirley at least had Solomon caring for her. And that she now has good people, lots of green space, and fellow elephants, especially Jenny.
Big Apple Circus stopped using elephants in 2000 or so. Ringling Brothers will phase out the use of elephants in a couple of years (not fast enough!). I saw ads for some sort of Soul Circus coming to Raleigh and read that there were allegations of elephant abuse, so I hope they do the right thing and stop exploiting these animals. And if they don't chose to do the right thing, that they are FORCED to do the right thing.