Hohenwald / Tennessee / United States
As a true sanctuary, The Elephant Sanctuary is not intended to provide entertainment. Patron-level donors are invited to tour the facility through our VIP Pledge Program, but the Sanctuary is closed to the general public. Education, however, represents a key component of the Sanctuarys ongoing mission. Since its inception, the Sanctuarys outreach program has taught thousands of school children across the country a respect for wildlife while learning about the crisis facing Asian and African elephants, both in captivity and in the wild. Our video teleconferencing program uses high-tech digital phone lines and over a dozen digital video cameras to transmit live pictures and sound. This extensive network gives the public an unobtrusive look into the daily lives of the elephants, and allows us to continue to bring our educational mission to classrooms all over North America. In the wild, elephants are migratory, walking 30 to 50 miles each day, and form intricate family structures. They grieve for their dead in a more-than-instinctive way. They show humor and express compassion for one another with intense interactions. The reality of their lives in captivity is that many are in chains up to 18 hours a day. They are enclosed in steel pens-often alone-broken and controlled by fear and intimidation. Our mission is to give them the freedom they deserve.
