Lilly lost, two calves and a banana plantation
With the journalists still at the park, everything seems quite. But after they have left, there’s chaos. The elephant Lilly has been lost last night at Elephant Haven. We all slept outside but no one has heard anything strange. Lilly has been given drugs for years and almost died of an overdose. Because of the drugs, and what they did to her mind, she has become isolated, and very much on her own. She still doesn’t have a lot of contact with the other elephants. She is always at her guard, very quite and walks very slowly. Most probably she has been walking through the jungle all night on her own. We hope that she didn’t walk into a plantation where a lot of pesticides are being used. The mahouts search for her day and night, but up till now, there’s no sign of Lilly.
End last week I was able to give Lek, on behalf of Bring the Elephant HOME, 2.000 euro’s . She was surprised and asked if this would be the money to be used to buy the freedom of the elephants later on. No, that money is still on our bank account. I told her this money is meant to help Elephant Nature Park get over the damage done by the recent flood. But Lek has a better idea. The money now is most urgently needed for the foodsupply for the 26 elephants at the park. Grass can’t be cut just everywhere anymore because of pesticides being used. This makes that the number of bags filled with bananas which have to be bought at the market increases week by week. This week we even had a day that there wasn’t enough fruit for sale at the market, so we immediately had a problem. So Lek asked me if she could use my money to buy a banana plantation. Structural support, where they can profit from everyday, and which makes that the elephants will have enough safe and healthy food. Ofcourse I agreed with her! A beautiful hill covered with banana trees, sponsored by Bring the Elephant HOME! And here a my pictures:
From my own money I’ve bought two calves, no elephant calves, but calves from cows… We found a very young calf laying on the street. She had just jumped out of a driving truck which was heading for the slaughter house. When the owner shows up, I decide to buy the calf from him right away. At the park the first to meet her is Jungleboy. He sees a strange long ear and starts pulling it with his trunk. We lay the poor nervous calf within a shelter of her own where she can get some rest. She was so exhausted she could just lay down and pant. Lek manages to get the owner to bring her sister as well. After we have taken care of her wounds, her sister arrives: her whole back covered with blood! When this calf is taken out of the truck she first wants to run away in panic. But the moment she sees her sister (no idea if it is her sister for real), she runs to her mooing . They were so glad to see each other. I decide to adopt them. I have named them Vegi and Teri, and they will stay at the park the rest of their lives. In a few hours the mahouts build a beautiful cowpalace for calves to spend the night. At daytime they can go anywhere they want to, the elephants will get used to them. Lek says, where 26 elephants, 30 dogs and 40 people can live, there’s room for a couple of calves as well!
Vegi and Teri after two days at the park already feeling at home, and seeming to be happy. You wouldn’t let them to be taken to the slaughter house, now would you? And you wouldn’t eat them as well, now would you ?!!!
