Nosey at The Elephant Sanctuary near Nashville / Photo courtesy The Elephant Sanctuary
LAWRENCE COUNTY – Patricia Bentley of the Cullman Area Animal Welfare Association (CAAWA) informed The Tribune that on Monday afternoon, Lawrence County District Judge Angela Terry granted permanent custody of Nosey the elephant to the county, which in turn gave Nosey to The Elephant Sanctuary near Nashville, where she has been housed since November.
Many area residents remember the visit of Hugo Liebel’s Great American/American Family Circus to Cullman last November. After performances at the Cullman Civic Center were canceled, the circus moved to a nearby shopping center parking lot to offer paid rides on Nosey and other circus animals. When CAAWA and several local residents began protesting, the circus left town. When the circus stopped in Moulton for vehicle service, authorities there seized Nosey and other animals.
The Liebel family mounted a legal effort to get Nosey back, raising thousands of dollars through a GoFundMe campaign. Their effort became more difficult after Hugo Liebel and his wife Franciszka Liebel were arrested and formally charged with animal cruelty in December.
On Monday morning, Terry granted permanent custody to Lawrence County. The county, though, has no facility or experience to care for an elephant. Since Nosey had been sheltered at The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, southwest of Nashville, county authorities granted the facility permanent custody later in the day.
Nosey officially joins 27 other elephants at the sanctuary, including at least one with whom she once lived as a juvenile in a private Florida collection.
For more information on The Elephant Sanctuary, visit https://www.elephants.com.
Background: http://www.cullmantribune.com/articles/2017/12/16/justice-nosey-elephants-owners-arrested-animal-cruelty-charges
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