there is a passage in du bois’ “the world and africa” where he laments the slaughter of elephants and it makes me cry every time i read it. when i have a moment i’ll post it
There’s an elephant rescue/retirement sanctuary in Pennsylvania, of all places (associated with the Pittsburgh Zoo), but they don’t allow visitors. The elephants are left in peace. I think that’s beautiful. I’d love to visit, but I can respect this.
There was a description from Peter Matthiessen, I think in African Silences, about how the slaughter of adult elephants left juveniles cut loose from their cultural heritage. The thought that we are destroying animal cultural lineages the way we have with human societies is so tragic.
If you get the chance, there’s an elephant sanctuary in Laos called MandaLaos where you can spend a day walking in the jungle with rescued elephants (no riding, that really injures them!) and it’s amazing.
We went to Botswana for our honeymoon, and it is incredible how chill they are in the wild. One slept next to our tent and snored the whole night and then just chilled with us in the morning for a bit.
Just insane that someone sees that and says “Okay but what if I murdered it instead?”
Having been around rescued elephants up close, in Thailand, and seen how they interact with each other as well as having heard stories about how they’re treated — yes.
