We want to think of elephants living free in the wilds of Africa and Asia.

We want to believe that every elephant is free to take a mud bath when he or she wants to.

All of these elephants are now living free at The Elephant Sanctuary, but the reality is that they all were abused before being rescued.

What can I do?

How can I help stop the pain and suffering?

Go Vegan!

• Don't eat animals or their by-products (meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy, cheese, milk).

• Don't wear or use animal products (fur, fur trim, leather, skins, wool, silk).

• Tell others why you have made this compassionate choice. 

Always be peaceful and polite when expressing your feelings.

Speak out against all forms of animal exploitation and cruelty.

Refer others to our website so they can see for themselves. 

Write letters to editors of newspapers, to broadcasters, and to elected officials.  - Animals deserve the legal rights not to be used, exploited, and destroyed by humans.

Be a believable witness!

Give only to compassionate and cruelty-free organizations.

• Charities that do not test on animals or use animals for research.

• Environmental organizations that don't believe in hunting. 

• Before you give, check carefully to see where their money goes.

• Don't be a "meanie greenie."

Buy only cruelty-free makeup, toiletries, and household products.

• Products that contain no animal by-products or ingredients.

• Products that are not tested on animals.

• Educate yourself.

Always adopt companion animals.  Do not buy them from pet shops or breeders. 

Always spay and neuter companion animals.  Prevent over-population.

Support only cruelty-free entertainment with no animal acts, rodeos, or racing. 

Speak out against blood sports (hunting, fishing, trapping, bull fighting and other animal fighting).

Always set the example for compassionate and peaceful living.  Educate yourself.  Keep improving.  Ask others to join you in your efforts.

For more information on what you can do to help animals, please see:

Animal Rights Activism

 Video Library

See Zoo Vs. Sanctuary: An Ethical Consideration
 

See the following stories:

The Tragedy of "Burra", Orphaned by the Despicable Bushmeat Trade

The Nursery Welcomes Orphan "Mpala"

Little Morani is Learning How to Trust Humans Again

Nasalot the Orphaned Elephant

Mulika the Orphaned Elephant

Reality

(Elephant Entertainment - 01)  Hawthorn Corporation's performing elephants are chained by a leg in the barn.  This is a form of continual abuse.  Boycott all animal acts.  Do not attend their performances.

(Elephant Entertainment - 02)  Lota chained in her barn at Hawthorn. Dangerously underweight and tuberculosis exposed, Lota and Misty will be required to live in quarantine after their rescue. Their release was scheduled for August 15, 2004, but due to pending motions filed by John Cuneo of the Hawthorn Corp., their rescue is delayed. She had been chained and abused for about 48 years of her life after being kidnapped from her mother and family.

(Elephant - Entertainment - 03)  "On Aug. 20, 1994, Tyke ran amok in the streets of Kaka'ako after mauling her groomer and killing her circus trainer in Blaisdell Arena."  It's not so much that Tyke "ran amok," as the newspaper report stated, but that she came to that point in her life when she could no longer stand the years of abuse.  This tragedy never would have occurred if humans didn't abuse animals for their own entertainment.

(Elephant - Entertainment - 04)  April 23, 2002: Delhi, another Hawthorn Corporation elephant, had severe tissue damage to her front feet and several abscessed areas on her body, including areas on both hips, between her eyes, the anterior portion of her ear attachment, on her head, the elbows of both front legs, and her tail. Chemical burns on Delhi's feet were the result of the use of undiluted formaldehyde to soak Delhi's feet. When people attend traveling animal acts, they contribute to these atrocities.

(Elephant - Entertainment - 05)  I just wanted to share with you; This is Delhi, my heart! ...and this is what the circus does to an elephants' feet.

(Elephant - Entertainment - 06)  This is another photo of Delhi...and the new life a true sanctuary brings. The chance to lie down and have her first toys in 55 years.

(Elephant - Entertainment - 07)  The following pics were taken from The Elephant Sanctuary: Again this is Delhi; before and after. Note the horrific swelling of her right front leg.

(Elephant - Entertainment - 08)  These elephants are chained by their legs and forced to stand on the hard concrete surface.

(Elephant - Entertainment - 09)  Note the bull hook that the "trainer" is using to force this elephant to walk through city streets.

(Elephant - Entertainment - 10)  This so-called "trainer" was caught on film beating a circus elephant into submission.  Every time a person pays admission to see an animal act, they are supporting this kind of cruelty.

(Elephant - Entertainment - 11)  We do not know the exact reason that this elephant collapsed against the vehicles, but it is obvious that something is terribly wrong.  Note the cruel bull hook and whip being carried by the "trainer".

(Elephant - Entertainment - 12)  The highlighted portion of this photo shows the injury caused by the cruel treatment these circus elephants are forced to endure.

(Elephant - Entertainment - 13)  This elephant collapsed and died while in transit for a circus.  Now her body is being dragged from this trailer with a chain.  This would not have happened if the elephants were treated with love and respect and not moved about as objects of entertainment.

(Elephant - Ivory - 01)  "Born Free CEO Will Travers (pictured with an elephant carcass)."   This elephant was killed for his or her ivory tusks.  This is an example of evilness and greed of some human beings.  People who buy ivory are buying it with the blood of elephants just like this one, and they become a co-conspirator in the murder of these innocent beings.

(Elephant - Ivory - 02)  These tusks are being burned in an attempt to stop the poaching of elephants for their ivory.  The process involved in procuring ivory is indeed horrific. The elephant must be killed before the ivory can be procured - stoning, poison dart resulting in slow painful death or machine gun slaughter of entire herds at waterholes. Regardless of the mode in which the elephants are killed, the process of extracting the ivory is all the same. In order to obtain all the ivory from the elephant, the hunter and poacher must cut into the head because approximately 25% of the ivory is contained in the head. What is then left on the fields of the African or Asian plains is the corpse of a tusk less elephant with a mutilated face and head.

(Elephant - Ivory - 03)  Illegal Domestic Ivory Trade - Worthless trinkets.  An eight-month HSUS investigation has uncovered a thriving market for illegally traded elephant ivory in an unexpected place: the United States, a nation that prides itself on the protection of endangered species and vigilance in enforcing the ban on international ivory trade.  Do not be involved in the murder of elephants.  Don't buy ivory!

(Elephant - Ivory - 04)  This vicious slaughter must end!! I've cried an ocean of tears, I have no words.

(Elephant - Ivory - 05)  166 elephants murdered!  A Taiwanese customs official measures the length of an elephant tusk along with hundreds of other smuggled tusks from Cameroon. A total of 332 tusks weighing 2,160 kilograms were found in May, 2000 near the northern Keelung port in the largest haul seized by local customs authorities.

(Elephant - Ivory - 06)  The Orphans: Every piece of ivory is a haunting memory of a once proud and majestic animal that should have lived three score years and ten; who has loved and been loved, and was once a member of a close knit and loving family akin to our own, but who has suffered and died to yield a tusk for a trinket.

(Elephant - Ivory - 07)  The Orphans: Every elephant that dies leaves family and loved ones that have grieved deeply, the dependent young doomed to die an agonizing death in terror and lonely isolation.

(Elephant - Ivory - 08)  The Orphans: EVERY PERSON THAT BUYS IVORY HAS BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS AND IS AN ACCOMPLICE IN KILLING AN ELEPHANT, CAUSING IMMEASURABLE SORROW AND SUFFERING TO MANY OTHERS.

(Elephant - Ivory - 09)  The Orphans: Orphaned babies; the greater number, a result of ivory poaching.

(Elephant - Ivory - 10)  The Orphans: Elephant babies still possess the capacity to show love and affection to humans. God Bless these nursery workers, who return those feelings to these fragile babies.  A true orphanage.

(Elephant - Ivory - 11)  The Orphans: So precious, they find comfort in each others company.

(Elephant - Ivory - 12)  The Orphans: Like human children, play behavior is demonstrated in all animals of higher intelligence.

(Elephant - Ivory - 13)  The Orphans: These orphans are violently separated from their mothers long before they are weaned. They need milk to survive and their new "Moms" try to make up for the tragic loss. They are the angels.

(Elephant - Ivory - 14)  The Orphans: How does the human heart possess the capacity to destroy creatures as fragile as these?

(Elephant - Ivory - 15)  Notice some of the smaller tusks.... "Thai customs officials show seized ivory in Bangkok on September 30, 2004. The ivory was seized on September 16, from a Thai Airways International flight from Singapore bound for Bangkok. Elephant is on the 'Ten Most Wanted Species' - most at risk from unregulated international trade and their fate will be at issue at the 13th Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). conference starting this Saturday in Bangkok." REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang

(Elephant - Ivory - 16)  This elephant mother was shot and killed by poachers, leaving her six month old child an orphan.  Human greed knows no mercy.

(Elephant - Ivory - 17)  Hundreds of elephants were brutally murdered for these tusks.  We need to remember that the basic characteristics of sin in the world are the human lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. To trade in the tortured body parts of another living being fulfills two of these sinful traits: they lust over the "beauty" of the ivory, and because it has material value, they boast over possessing it.

(Elephant - Zoo - 01)  This is Lulu, the San Francisco Zoo's lone African elephant in her barren enclosure. No enrichment but an old tire, no grass, no greenery. Alone since the death of her companion over the summer.  The elephants that are forced to live alone is contrary to American Zoological and Aquarium Association's own guidelines and standards of care, and so by their own definition, abuse.

(Elephant - Zoo - 02)  This is Tinkerbelle, the San Francisco Zoo's Asian elephant. She is also alone in her enclosure, due to the euthanization of her companion within weeks of the death of Lulu's companion. Again, her surroundings are barren and completely mind-numbing, no greenery other than ornamental. A couple of bamboo branches and 2 hanging toys are her enrichment, her only company. Elephants mourn the loss of their companions and loved ones just as we do.

(Elephant - Zoo - 03)  Tinkerbelle appears to have been given inadequate foot care, which is necessary for captive elephants because of their lack of walking exercise in the wild.

(Elephant - Zoo - 04)  Tinkerbelle also appears to have pressure scaring on her back.

(Elephant - Zoo - 05)  This is a photo of the open sores on the right side of Tinkerbelle's face.

(Elephant - Zoo - 06)  This is a photo of the open sores on the left side of Tinkerbelle's face.

Volunteer Journalist: Maureen Adams

More to come

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