Competing Concerns About Tiny
Tiny is the adopted daughter of Hugo and Franciszka Liebel.
At least that’s how Franciszka sees the 35-year-old African elephant.
“She is part of the family,” she said. “We have raised all five of our kids with her.”
Hugo acquired Tiny when she was 1-1/2 years old. She was orphaned when her mother was killed in Africa, either by poachers or by the government culling several large herds.
Approximately 60 baby elephants were rescued and shipped to the United States in the mid-1980s. Tiny was among that lot.
Franciszka married Hugo in 1988 and assumed the role of co-parenting Tiny, a monumental task matching the elephant’s 7,000-pound frame.
“They absorb you,” she said. “You have to be there, and can hardly go on vacation. You dedicate your entire life to well being of the elephant.
“Once you take on the responsibility you are committed and you had better be really dedicated.”
In fact, said Franciszka, “You don’t really own an elephant. They own you.”
The Liebel family, all of whom are involved in their family circus, take Tiny to 10 or 12 circus engagements a year and several festivals, parades and even “an ice cream social at a governor’s home.”
Tiny gives rides and eats from the hands of the children who clamber to get up close to the lovable beast.
“She is one of the biggest attractions wherever we go,” said Franciszka. “Elephants are people magnets. It is a unique experience unlike any you can get anywhere else.”
Because African elephants are “particularly sensitive to the cold,” the Liebels spend four months a year during the winter at their home base in Davenport, Fla.
This year marked Tiny’s second trip to the Mermaid Festival, having made her debut in 2016. “We are, in my opinion, back by popular demand,” Franciszka said.
The people of North Webster love Tiny, according to Franciszka. “We have a good working relationship with them. This is a super happy town.”
But not everyone is happy.
The Liebels have attracted a cadre of animal rights protesters who made their presence known each of the five days of Tiny’s visit.
Friday afternoon, June 24, Tabitha Frank stationed herself on the other side of the chain link fence where the Liebels set up their attraction, which also included pony rides.
Frank heard about Tiny, dubbed Nosey by the Leibels’ opponents, that morning from Black Pine Sanctuary in Albion and drove in from South Whitley to stage her protest.
She carried a handwritten sign objecting to Tiny’s treatment.
“Elephants are social creatures, pack animals,” she explained, and just to have them in an enclosure is torture.”
Citing “200 infractions” by the Liebels, Frank said, “Even if they tried to give the animal the best they could it is still torture.
“How do you think this elephant feels trapped in a hot trailer, traveling for hours? It can’t run and can’t play with other animals of its own kind.”
She advocated for “a national law prohibiting people from owning an elephant.”
“Is the five minutes of excitement worth this elephant’s misery?” she asked. “This is the fair’s fault, our fault, America’s fault.”
While research did not divulge evidence of 200 infractions, the USDA did file one complaint against Hugo in 2011.
That litigation yielded a consent decision in 2013 whereby Hugo agreed to pay a $7,500 fine.
“My attorney said it would be cheaper than fighting the allegations,” he said.
No further action by the USDA is indicated on its website, though the agency does provide an online forum for individuals to register unofficial complaints.
Carl Freeman, who has worked for the Liebels for 22 years as office and road manager, said only one of the USDA’s original counts was found to have merit and that count had nothing to do with Tiny’s treatment.
He said the protesters “put no dent in business.”
Another protester, Rachel Fruitt, 18, of Warsaw, said elephants “belong in the wild. They should be taken to sanctuaries.”
Franciszka disagrees, hailing Tiny as “an ambassador” to bring awareness of elephant poaching. “If they got rid of all the elephants, how will we care about them? People care about what they see up close.
“No one will ever take her away,” she said, “except over my dead body.”
Mark Lawson, president of the North Webster Lions Club, said, while the protesters have been peaceful, their concerns about abuse are misplaced, according to individuals he asked to monitor the elephant’s health.
“All of our Lions members and the people we have had here from the county and the state all looked at the elephant and said she is doing fine,” he said. “The people from the Black Pine Sanctuary in Albion said there has been no mistreatment.”
Lawson said he fielded 15 phone calls the first day of the Mermaid Festival. “The majority left their numbers and I called them back,” he said.
“I never had anyone cuss at me or get upset, because they know where we are coming from.”
“We are doing this for the town and surrounding communities and businesses,” said Lawson. “That’s why I joined.”