What does a zoo do, we wonder, when an elephant gets too old to stay in the zoo? It’s a tricky issue deciding where to send the animal so everyone’s happy. Now, what if the elephant has a history of depression and the elephant-equivalent of PTSD? What then?

That last question is not a hypothetical thought experiment - it’s what the Dallas zoo is wondering right now. Jenny is an elephant that’s had a tough life, The New York Times tells us. She was orphaned, stolen from Africa, shipped to America where she was beaten in the circus, an finally taken in by the Dallas zoo 22 years ago. Now, her latest companion has passed away, and the zoo had made arrangements to send Jenny to another zoo in Mexico, where she would be a part of a five-acre exhibit with another female elephant.

But this decision has rankled some people. From the Times article,

But that decision sparked a firestorm in Dallas. Local protesters, world-renowned elephant experts and national animal rights groups are crusading to have her sent to a 2,700-acre sanctuary in Tennessee where 17 other traumatized elephants are kept in seclusion.

Jenny is a special-needs elephant, said Margaret Morin, a Dallas nurse who leads Concerned Citizens for Jenny. She’s unique; she’s afflicted with crippling depression. The elephant sanctuary is the right choice.

But the underlying issue is the caging of elephants in zoos at all. While zoos state that with good care by zookeepers elephants face no harm from enclosure, “Animal rights advocates have long argued that elephants in most zoos lack enough space and, as a consequence, suffer from foot ailments, arthritis and psychological problems.”

Because there are so many different viewpoints on the issue, there is more than one way you can take action. One way to takepart is to visit a website whose goal is to help elephants in zoos by raising awareness of the poor conditions in which they live. Another way to takepart is to visit the San Diego Zoo’s Conservation and Research for Endangered Species center, and learn what one zoo is doing for the good of captive animals, elephants included.