Elephants reunited after 20 years

[lulu]

http://www.wimp.com/elephantsreunited/


I found this very moving and wanted to share.

 

[missy]

Oh Lulu, thank you for sharing. It's so moving and it breaks my heart the way elephants (and so many other animals) are treated by the cruel hand of man. "Free at last" indeed. I wish all these beautiful animals could be free.

 

[JewelFreak]

Oh gosh it made me cry, of course. Such beautiful sensitive animals & so badly used through history. Thank heaven for people like that keeper & places like that Sanctuary. They make me feel a little less ashamed to be human.

--- laurie

 

[hlmr]

Thank you for sharing such a beautiful and heartfelt reunion.

 

[Madam Bijoux]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/siscaro/2355796691/

This is a link to one of the best pieces of writing I ever read about any animal. "I am an elephant" by Stu Bykofsky.

 

[Madam Bijoux]

This is something written by Ridyard Kipling about an elephant.
“I will remember what I was, I am sick of rope and chains -
I will remember my old strength and all my forest affairs.
I will not sell my back to man for a bundle of sugar cane;
I will go out to my own kind, and the wood-folk in their lairs.
I will go out until the day, until the morning break -
Out to the wind's untainted kiss, the water's clean caress;
I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket stake.
I will revisit my lost love and playmates masterless!”

 

[katharath]

Thank you for posting that lulu - I really enjoyed it. Elephants are fascinating to me.

 

[LaraOnline]

I'm not sure I can bear to watch this, as the offhand cruelty of humans to animals really upsets me.
Thank goodness we are moving away from the scientific view of animals as machines though.
It's obvious many higher animals have family ties, learning processes and memories.
Hopefully we will stop treating the world as 'man's domain' and grapple with the needs of other species before it is too late entirely.
Hopefully.
We take up an awful lot of space.

 

[Gypsy]

That was wonderful, thanks so much for sharing Lulu!

 

[Gypsy]

In case you want to know what happened to Jenny and Shirley:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/bestofnature/update.html
http://www.elephants.com/jenny/jennyBio.php

 

[Polished]

Jenny experienced some wonderful years of life thanks to this place and the enterprising, compassionate people who set it up. The work they do makes for interesting reading. It costs thousands apparently to keep just one elephant for a year and many of them require medical treatment. They accept donations and also sell merchandise (make good pressies) that goes towards the elephants upkeep. Places like this give me hope that change can happen.

http://shop.elephants.com/index.php

 

[JewelFreak]

Sometimes I am so ashamed of being human. Others, I see light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[movie zombie]

Sometimes I am so ashamed of being human. ........

agreed.

what we as a species have done to elephants breaks my heart.

 

[sonnyjane]

Sometimes I am so ashamed of being human.

The shark cull in Australia, the auctioning off of the right to kill the rhino in Namibia, The Cove in Japan, and Russia capturing wild killer whales to display near the winter Olympics in Sochi...All headlines this week alone within the realm of humans being the scum of the earth.

Definitely bawled watching this clip!