Near my house is large, run-down mall. Once upon a time it may have been a nice mall but it’s hit hard times: lots of empty stores, very few customers, a general air of decay and neglect. Basically, it doesn’t have much to offer by way of shopping.

But, it does have a great big empty parking lot. A couple times a year the parking lot gets taken over by traveling fairs — you know, the kind that seem to have Death Trap spelled out in neon lights? I’m always amazed that there are still such fairs and that people still go to them — at least enough to keep them in business.

Also, there is a yearly circus that unfolds its tents in the mall parking lot.

I know that the circus is in town because, as I drive on the highway right by the mall, I look over and there, standing in the parking lot, are two elephants. They are underneath a small tent but it’s open on all sides so the elephants are plainly viewable.

I can’t even express the heart-pain it gives me to see these creatures in this environment. The image is burned into the retinas of my eyes: the small space of the tent, the way they just stand there, their heads bent, the blue plastic tarp over their heads, the asphalt beneath their feet.

The absolute wrongness of their location is maddening to me — and, I suspect, to them.

Animal rights activists are always accused of over sentimentalizing animals — so I won’t talk about the fact that elephants are incredibly intelligent creatures, that they have demonstrated a capacity for deep emotion and memory. I won’t mention that their ability to implement their circus “routines” might be further evidence of their ability to not just learn but to think and feel.

No matter what, they don’t deserve to be standing in the mall parking lot. Surely we can all agree?

My heart is broken for them.

Elephants as they should be.