I’m reminiscing to a few weeks back when my assistant Amy and I visited this sanctuary in Bali, partly because I seriously love elephants, wanted to touch one for real and see them as well, being in Africa, Indonesia and Malaysia and only spotting them from afar, and also I just wanted to see what it was all about, was it a sanctuary or not? Sadly, I found out it was not, at least not in my eyes, seeing the workers poke a mother elephant so that she will stop crying when they push her baby towards a visitor to get a touch or a closer look is not a sanctuary, I believe they felt they were doing a good thing, letting people ride on the elephants and get closer which is both education and humanizing leaves the elephants on the short end…….of course being re-leased back into the wild may not be an option, but i was really bummed out by those pokers……….My favorite elephant sanctuary is The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, http://www.elephants.com/They do such amazing work there, be sure to read about Tara and Bella, the elephant dog best friendship there.
I did get to kiss an elephant in Bali and also, one beautiful girl put a flower wreath around my neck, which made my body tingle all over…….i was in heaven and hell…….such is the trap of zoos, etc. we get closer but the animals always suffer.
