Eccentric Star

 

Jenny was a wild Asian elephant born in Sumatra in 1972. She was captured as an infant. While still very young, she spent a winter in a circus that also owned an older elephant named Shirley. At twenty, Jenny was sent to Illinois for breeding. An incident with a bull elephant left her with an injured leg that never healed properly. In 1995, 20/20 did a piece about captive elephants which showed Jenny living in poor conditions, ill and underweight. The following July, she was moved to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, becoming the third elephant there. Three years later, a new elephant joined the sanctuary. Twenty-three years had passed, but Jenny and Shirley recognized each other instantly. For the next seven years, the two elephants were inseparable. The Elephant Sanctuary is home to a dozen pachyderms, though Jenny and Shirley are gone. If there’s a Heaven for elephants, Shirley and Jenny are probably there side by side.