Former Circus Elephant Continues Treatment at Tenn. Sanctuary - March 9, 2004
St. Edward School's 'cool' curriculum includes studying Elephant Sanctuary - January 31, 2004
Outdoor girl; Four years after packing her trunk for Tennessee, Bunny is 'thriving' at the growing Elephant Sanctuary - January 11, 2004
Former Circus Elephant Continues Treatment at Tenn. Sanctuary
March 9, 2004
CHICAGO (AP)
The owner of a circus training farm in suburban Chicago has agreed to give away his elephants.
John Cuneo sent one of them to Tennessee in 2003. The USDA ordered the animal removed because of her illness.
At The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Director Carol Buckley said Tuesday the animal named Delhi is doing well four months into treatment after X-rays found a severe bone infection in her feet.
An administrative law judge with the federal Agriculture Department must approve the deal for Cuneo to find new homes for his remaining nearly 20 elephants.
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St. Edward School's 'cool' curriculum includes studying Elephant Sanctuary
The Tennessean
By NATALIA MIELCZAREK
January 31, 2004
As St. Edward School students saw Tarra, Jenny and Shirley appear on a screen, they gasped.
Looking at the three elephants just 85 miles away was what made this week "cool," some said.
Granted, they didn't get to touch the animals, but they saw them in their stalls through a video conference with the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn. And it was a part of the national Catholic Schools Week, which concludes today.
"It's pretty cool because elephants are really complicated," said eighth-grader Diane Nash. "We usually learn about people, not animals. There are lots of (programs) to help people, but elephants need our help as well."
The connection between Catholic Schools Week and elephants might appear faint at first. But teachers and students say learning about the animals and collecting money to help support them is a service project, one of this week's components. Besides, the celebratory week focuses on education appreciation.
"The kids have so much and are used to bringing cans for food drives," said Jessica Burns, eighth-grade teacher. "They got a different perspective because this is an entirely different kind of a service project."
Beginning with kindergarteners, St. Edward students poured into an auditorium and listened to Carol Buckley, whose face appeared on a wide screen. Buckley, who has worked with elephants for 30 years, helps run the sanctuary. She talked about the animals as if they were people, with different personalities, emotions and needs.
"Initially one might ask: 'What does rescuing and caring for needy elephants have to do with education or 'me' for that matter,' " Buckley said through e-mail.
"Then you learn that a lack of education is what has fostered the harmful situation which elephants and other endangered captive species are forced to live under the disguise of education."
The education about elephants at St. Edward extended beyond just a screen. Aside from brushing up on what elephants eat, how they use their trunks and why they don't last long in captivity, the children shelled out some money. Some brought spare change; others bought passes that allowed jeans and a T-shirt instead of a mandatory uniform.
"It taught me that there are a lot of people out there that care about animals," said eighth-grader Maria Creecy. "This week makes me realize that we have these freedoms at our school. We take them for granted."
To learn more
The Elephant Sanctuary occupies 2,700 acres in Hohenwald, Tenn. It provides refuge for sick and old elephants, many of which have been injured over the years in circuses and zoos. Go to www.elephants.com to learn more.
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Outdoor girl
Four years after packing her trunk for Tennessee, Bunny is 'thriving' at the growing Elephant Sanctuary
Courier & Press
By Rich Davis
January 11, 2004
In November, when a winter freeze descended on the hilly pastures, woods and streams, Carol Buckley and an assistant bundled up and went out to talk to Bunny, the former Evansville elephant.
It was time to come in out of the cold at the Elephant Sanctuary, which sprawls across hundreds of acres outside tiny Hohenwald, Tenn., about 65 miles southwest of Nashville.
"Bunny's our outdoor girl," chuckled Buckley, the sanctuary cofounder, sounding like a mother. Except her 52-year-old child weighs 8,000 pounds and won't get in trouble if she slings mud or wanders a mile from home under a sky full of stars.
"It took Bunny about 10 minutes to think about it," Buckley said during a phone interview, "but Bunny turned around with a pleasant look on her face and went right in to the barn."
According to Buckley, every elephant has its own personality and Bunny, for whatever reason, is usually the last to return to the heated barn. "She never stayed outside at night when she was at the zoo (in Evansville), so maybe she feels that's something she missed out on," Buckley mused. "She was born in Burma, born to be in colder temperatures."
Bunny frequently roams with several other elephants, "but if Bunny wants to go over the hill and the others don't, it's 'See ya later,'" Buckley said. "She's incredibly active."
As Buckley spoke, an elephant could be heard trumpeting.
"That's Bunny," said Buckley, who established the nonprofit refuge in 1995 with Scott Blais to provide a retirement option for old, sick and needy elephants, most of them from zoos or circuses.
"Bunny's a joy. She'll start a trumpeting contest with the other elephants - and it's no contest. She trumpets the loudest."
Buckley said Bunny's relationship with Jenny, Shirley and Tarra has deepened. "And now she has a comfortable relationship with Sissy and Winky," the latter an assertive elephant who used to frighten Bunny.
"It's taken a lot of time and orchestrated interactions. The elephants have worked hard to bring everybody together. Today, Bunny will approach Winky."
Bunny's move to Hohenwald four years ago was controversial. City and zoo officials wanted the huge land animal to live with other elephants in a natural habitat free of chains and commands; critics feared she might not survive the nearly five-hour drive from a zoo cell that had been her home since the 1950s.
Buckley said Bunny "is thriving. Her health is great. Her feet (which suffered from years of being on concrete) are fine. She's a good eater. ... She's lost some weight. You can see her spine, but she still has that Bunny hay belly."
When Bunny arrived at the sanctuary on Sept. 30, 1999, she was one of five female Asian elephants. Today, the sanctuary has eight, including Tina, who made a 3-day journey to the sanctuary from the Greater Vancouver Zoo in August, and Delhi, an ailing 57-year-old circus pachyderm.
Delhi arrived Nov. 23 after the U.S. Department of Agriculture seized her from Illinois-based Hawthorn Corp., which leases elephants to circuses.
Delhi has osteomyelitis, a debilitating foot disease. The USDA, in citing Hawthorn for violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act, claimed she was receiving inadequate care and that her life was in danger.
Buckley said Delhi (in quarantine for six months) is being treated. So far, the infection has been stopped. It's estimated her care over the next six months will cost $80,000. Tina also has osteomyelitis, but it's in remission.
Delhi wasn't as lucky as Bunny, said Buckley, who compliments the Evansville zoo staff for successfully treating Bunny's foot problem "for 22 years."
The sanctuary tries to duplicate the wild, one reason it has only female elephants. In the wild, female Asian elephants live in herds separate from the males.
Buckley refers to the elephants as "our girls."
It's a family that's growing as the sanctuary embarks on a $6 million expansion that will exceed 2,000 acres and divide the preserve into two separate habitats.
This month the sanctuary is getting its first African elephants: Tange, Zula and Flora.
To house them - Asian and African elephants have different languages, behaviors and dietary needs - a separate African barn is being completed. There will be a common corral where the Asian and African elephants can see and touch one another but not be together.
Flora is a celebrity. Actress Cameron Diaz became a fan of the elephant, who has been temporarily boarding at the Miami Metro Zoo, and helped lead a "free Flora" campaign to raise money to move the elephant to Tennessee.
Flora, orphaned by poachers at a young age, was the star of a small circus for 18 years. She was like a 9,000-pound puppy to her owner, Ivor David Balding, but eventually he realized Flora needed the company of other elephants.
Hollywood celebrities and others have been raising more than $200,000 toward the African barn and to provide an endowment for Flora, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
"We've never had an elephant who came with an endowment," said Buckley.
The two other African elephants, Tange and Zula, spent their entire lives at Chehaw Wild Animal Park in Albany, Ga., and are being retired after 30 years. The animal park's director, Glenn Doborgosz, says, "They deserve to live out their remaining years in the very best captive environment possible."
Buckley said the sanctuary's operating budget for the eight elephants has been about $600,000 a year, much of it generated by public support and 20,000 sanctuary members across North America. The sanctuary goal is to one day be home to 100 elephants.
The next project will be a second Asian elephant barn, plus "warming huts" that are sort of like halfway houses - enclosures for elephants who don't want to return to the main barn while out exploring and grazing.
Buckley describes elephants as intelligent, socially complex animals that in captivity often are starved for an emotional connection and mental stimulation. The sanctuary allows them to be elephants, to interact with one another and follow a migratory nature. They walk three to 15 miles a day at the sanctuary.
Besides barn feedings, a couple of caregivers routinely head into the habitat with a "meals on wheels" program to provide grain, dietary supplements, produce and even foot soaks or trims.
The sanctuary is not open to the public. However, an education center is planned that would let people on a limited basis view the elephants and the habitat through cameras strategically placed around the preserve.
Buckley was a California college student studying exotic animal care in the 1970s when she looked up one day and saw a baby elephant, Tarra, walking past her house. A local tire dealer had bought the tiny elephant as a promotion gimmick for his store.
Buckley volunteered to help train Tarra and wound up buying her. For 20 years they were together at circuses, zoos and elsewhere, but Buckley's dream was to have a place "where elephants could just be elephants."
Buckley said volunteers who come to the sanctuary are disappointed they can't be with the elephants. But she said the experience still has a profound impact on them: "They realize it's not about viewing the elephants but seeing what we're doing for elephants."
To learn more about the sanctuary, you can visit www.elephants.com online or call (931) 796-6500.
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