In "Shooting an Elephant," why does the thesis statement have nothing to do with elephants?

Well, it is important to remember that in this excellent
essay the elephant of the title is a powerful symbol that is used to support the
author's thesis statement. If we want to pick out that thesis statement, we would need
to look at the following quote:

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I perceived in this moment that when the white
man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he
destroys.

Orwell discovered
through the incident when he was forced to shoot the elephant the truth of this
statement. He, apparently, was the man in charge, the man with the power, and yet, he
realises that he had no choice but to shoot the elephant even though he felt that it
didn't need to be killed and he didn't want to do it. Ironically, becoming a tyrant has
actually resulted in limiting and restricting the freedom of white men, rather than
increasing it.

Thus, you are right in a sense when you say
that the elephant has nothing to do with the thesis statement, however it was the
incident that triggered the powerful epiphany that Orwell experienced about the colonial
exploits of the "white man." In a sense, there could have been a number of incidents
that would have sparked that same sudden understanding, but Orwell chose to base it on
his own shooting of an elephant.