Some things, you expect to see in Texas.

But in the town of Leggett, about 80 miles north of Houston, there are two things you don’t.

Tina and Jewel are rare Asian elephants. With fewer than 50,000 and remaining in the wild, they are an endangered species and share the Leggett property with a third elephant named Boo when she’s not on the road with handler, Will Davenport.

“We do fairs, parades, a couple of circuses, not too many,” he said. “Commercials weddings, birthday parties — a little bit of everything, pretty much.”

They are human celebrations, which according to some translate into a lifetime of misery for one of the most intelligent mammals walking the earth.

Davenport is a fourth generation circus performer; for that matter, so is boo.

“It’s kind of like a family thing,” he said. “The majority of people who are involved with elephants have been born and raised around elephants. We’ve had her for almost 25 years; she’s been through my parents.”

More on Davenport’s family in a moment, but first: Tina and Jewel.

While performing with the Cole Brothers Circus earlier this year in North Carolina, USDA inspection of the elephants noted an alarming amount of weight loss, and it was determined they were no longer fit to travel. 

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Tina and Jewel

Although that was in April, and Davenport said he’s had the elephants for two years, he blames their condition on the previous trainer. But he’s quick to add: “It’s the way their metabolism is, and it’s not their fault,” he said. “It’s not our fault.

“They’re very close,” he said. “They’ve been together for 30 years.”

Pulled from the circus, Davenport brought his performing pacaderms to Leggett where the USDA initially cited his unapproved facility for inadequate shade and shelter.  In a video shot in July by an organization called In Defense of Animals, elephants are seen in a 20-by-20 space surrounded by little more than an electric fence.

Davenport said they are in good standing with the USDA. To be certain, Davenport has since made improvements to the facility, and the USDA now says he’s in compliance, which means he meets minimum standards.

“Certainly, the post and cable are better than what they were,” noted expert Les Schobert said after taking a look at the video.

“I could push out that aluminum siding with my feet and hands,” he said.

A former zoo curator among other things, he’s worked with elephants for more than 30 years. 

As for Tina and Jewel, “they are sunken in behind their eyes and are still underweight,” Schobert said.

Underweight, he said, but improving. 

But what about the facility?

“In my opinion, I wouldn’t feel comfortable holding an elephant in that area,” Schobert said. “By law, yes, you could probably to it.”

By law, no official training is required to become an elephant handler, and the USDA has raised questions about Davenport’s level of experience. At 22 years of age, he’s about half the age of his elephants.

“The only proper training with an elephant is hands-on experience,” he said. “There ain’t no schooling. There’s not a school in this country that says, “yes, come here, we’re going to teach you how to be an elephant person.’”

It’s a skill, he said, that’s handed down in the family, which some find disturbing considering the fact that Davenport’s father was barred from the exotic animal business several years ago and fined $200,000 after one of his elephants, a baby named Heather, was found dead in the back of a poorly ventilated truck in Albuquerque.

“I’m my own person; he’s his own person,” the younger Davenport said. “He can deal with things his way; I can deal with things my way. That’s the way we do it.”

While Will davenport has never been charged with abuse, the abuse of elephants has been well documented by animal welfare groups: from restraining them to beating them with bull hooks — whatever it takes to get the ordinarily gentle giants to submit.

His bull hook ever present, 11 News never saw Davenport actually use it. Although critics say its mere presence is enough to intimidate.

Whether that applies here, we can’t say, as a creature that would normally walk 30 miles a day in the wild seems sadly content to wander in tiny circles to the squealing delight of those she entertains.