Elephant Voices

Category: 1. General News, Elephants in captivity, Events | Date: Nov 20 2008 | By: elephantvoices

After almost two weeks on the road with several events and fundraisers behind us, we depart from California and Los Angeles this afternoon. We’re busy packing so we don’t have time for more than a very short summary of our trip.

The tour started with a cooking party and two other events in San Francisco, continued with a joint event at PAWS in San Andreas. You can see a video from this event here, including footage of Joyce’s talk and of the responses of Ruby, Maggie, Mara and Lulu to some elephant sounds that we played to them. Their response was so strong that some people were worried that the sounds were upsetting to the girls. While it may be rare for captive elephants to react so strongly to a stimulus, the responses were very typical of wild elephants and we were able to observe a range of responses from high social excitement to fierce defence. Their response showed just what a strong leader Ruby has becomes and how tight the bonds are between the four elephants. PAWS can be extremely proud of the work they have done to facilitate the development of this family unit.

We finally had an event and fundraiser in the home of a good friend in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, on Sunday 16th November.

Georja Umano, Petter and Joyce

The last three days of our visit ended up being much more hectic than planned, mainly because of meetings and press briefings related to our involvement in discussions regarding the future of elephants, including Billy, at LA Zoo. On Tuesday Joyce participated in a press conference arranged by councilman Tony Cardenas of Los Angeles County Council. NBC Los Angeles, CBS Los Angeles and dailybreeze.com, laist and Fox LA are among the media that have covered the case. The vote was planned for Wednesday, but after 5 intense hours on the floor it has been delayed until the first week of December. (Article in LA Times here) We strongly hope the LA County Council will decide to close the exhibit and send Billy to a sanctuary. An urban zoo cannot offer the space necessary for a such a large, active, social, and intelligent animal as the elephant.

Petter, Joyce and Councilman Tony Cardenas visiting LA Zoo.

We’re extremely grateful for all the support and help we have received during our trip - it’s been exhausting but has also given us lots of new energy. We have made new friends, even some through WildlifeDirect, and hopefully created more compassion for elephants among people that we have met on our way. We look forward to keeping in touch with all of you caring for elephants.

Thanks!

Petter and Joyce

Tags: billy, elephants, elephantvoices, fundraiser, los angeles

2 responses so far

Category: 1. General News, Events | Date: Oct 28 2008 | By: elephantvoices

As many of you have seen and know, Joyce and I will be visiting California from 6 to 20 November. Together with friends, supporters and collaborators we’re holding several fundraisers, as you will see from the linked event overview. The timing is, admittedly, a bit more exciting than we planned - considering the global financial unrest. The election of a new US President a couple of days before our arrival may trigger some new optimism, though, which could be good for all of us, including elephants…

We lean towards a statement from one of our SF friends: At this stage it is much better to think about elephants than finances! And what we do know is that elephants need us more than ever - and even more so because of what may follow this economical downturn.

If you would like more information about our work don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’re currently doing a major revision of elephantvoices.org, and hope to launch the new version during December after some unfortunate delays. During the next few months the site will be expanded in ways that we believe many of you will like and find interesting, especially if you enjoy the voices of elephants. It will also include interactive information about our new elephant conservation project in Sri Lanka. Another of our goals is to improve how you can access and subscribe to our news. Please be patient while we are preparing the changes!

We hope you will follow the work of ElephantVoices in the years to come - it would be great to see you in person during our upcoming fundraising tour!

Best wishes, Petter

Tags: african elephants, asian elephants, elephants, elephantvoices, Events, fundraiser

One response so far

Category: 1. General News, Events | Date: Oct 11 2008 | By: elephantvoices

Despite the current turmoil in the world’s financial markets we continue to prepare for our fund raising tour to the Bay Area and Los Angeles, California between 7-20th November. Elephants have amazing senses, but I doubt that they have picked up on the quaking stock markets Arriving in San Francisco two days after the election of a new American President contributes towards the anticipation associated with this trip - we are keeping fingers crossed that the result brings about some new found optimism!

Thanks to the incredibly hard work of good friends and supporters in California, there are going to be several events in the San Francisco area and Los Angeles. There are smaller, more intimate events and some for a larger crowd - the gathering at the Bollyhood Cafe in San Francisco on 13 November and the luncheon at The Elephant Habitat at ARK 2000 (PAWS, San Andreas) on 15 November should be very lively! An informal talk, images and elephant vocals will be among the ingredients of the events.

Raising funds for our Minneriya-Kaudulla Elephant Project will be a main focus of our California 7 to 20 November tour. Come and learn more about it!

We would love to see anyone interested in our work at one or more of these quite different events - you can take a look at what’s on offer by reading or downloading a .pdf file with an overview of San Francisco events and contact names here. We have two events in Los Angeles, on 16 and 19 November, contact us on info(at)elephantvoices.org for more info.

We look forward to seeing you!

Tags: elephants, elephantvoices, fundraiser, kaudulla, minneriya, mkep

2 responses so far