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  Tripsy commented on the article | over 2 years ago

  USDA Moves to Rescue Elephant Jewel--Act Today for Jewel and Her Friends

  As far as ANYONE knowing how to care for elephants in captivity - NO ONE knows how. Period.  Living in a "sanctuary" is still living in captivity - the elephants will still have a life expectancy that is half of what it would be in the wild.  Tennessee is not Africa - and the sanctuary is merely a luxury retirement home.  Elephants in Africa regularly migrate hundreds of miles while grazing - so the 700 acres the Tennessee Sanctuary provides for elephants to live is hardly a substitute for free range migration  and can really only be looked at as marginally better than captive living.  We all know  elephants are extremely sensitive - so much so that when herds are culled in Africa, the calves must be killed along with their Mothers because the trauma of losing their mother's leads them to irreversible derangement.  The USDA seizure of these two elephants mentioned above and the resulting separation from their matriarch and human care taker will be no doubt be traumatic. So what is worse - elephants living in a cozy one bedroom apartment, or elephants being emotionally raped and sent to live in a mansion?  Who is really looking out for the emotional well being of these souls - they are captive elephants acustomed to a level of human interaction - you can't put them in a "sanctuary" and think all their problems are solved. The elephant sanctuary has only been in existence for ten years, and the amount of research data they have provided the scientific community is negligible - If there is true abuse occurring, yes, rescue these animals immediately - but the fact that the authorities left one of the elephants in the care of the owner leads me to believe the Tennessee Sanctuary wanted those elephants because of their own ideology, and hubris. The Sanctuary is a slick marketing machine - most of the information, news, "studies" you can find is generated by the sanctuary itself. It is hard for the public not to love the Sanctuary's feel good story, and it's a nice facility to boot, but after only 10 years - it is hardly the complete solution to our elephant woes and certainly not the only voice in elephant care and husbandry.

  
  

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