Why elephants need our help more than ever
As Prime Minister Theresa May drops a pledge to ban the ivory trade, Closer’s Katie Banks visits The David Sheldrick Trust elephant orphanage in Kenya to investigate the true horrors of poaching
Brutally maimed B and often left to die from horrific injuries, one African elephant is slaughtered every 15 minutes for its ivory tusks, with a third of the population shockingly wiped out over the past decade.
Unbelievably, just last week Prime Minister Theresa May dropped her party’s pledge to ban the trade of ivory in its General Election manifesto, causing outrage on social media.
TORY U TURN
One Twitter user blasted the decision, writing: “Theresa’s Conservative manifesto scraps the ban on the ivory trade. Basically add dead elephants to the list of Tory pledges.”
Former PM David Cameron previously promised an outright ban on the buying and selling of ivory in the UK in his 2015 Tory manifesto, despite a potential backlash from the antiques and fine art industries. That has been ripped up in the new manifesto, which would allow ivory carved before 1947 to be traded, though critics argue that it’s impossible to stop traders cheating by using fresh ivory.
Closer visited The David Sheldrick Trust in Nairobi, Kenya, the most successful orphan-elephant rescue and rehabilitation programme in the world, to speak to head keeper Edwin Lusichi about the true horrors of poaching.
Edwin, who currently looks after 32 baby elephants at the trust, says: “We have to save our elephants from the cruel ivory trade – and they need us more than ever. Baby elephants are often harmed while poachers violently kill their mothers, leaving them defenceless in the wild. We recently found a baby elephant lying alone in a bush with a bloody bullet wound in his knee. He had no tusks developed to defend himself from predators, but luckily we got to him in time.”
BEATEN AND SPEARED
Edwin continues: “Another baby – only one and half months old – had been beaten and speared after her mother was killed. She was rescued by some local people. That baby is now three years old and is about to be released into the wild from the trust. Knowing she will be free again brings joy to my heart.”
And Edwin says baby elephants, who drink 24 litres of milk a day and cost around £700 a month to raise, have feelings just like humans.
TRUNK CUDDLES
Edwin says: “The elephants are very affectionate and sociable with people. They come up and give us cuddles and put their trunks around our bodies and lick us. In the wild, they would have had play time with their mothers so we play football with them and make sure they are as active as possible. They’re just like human beings with feelings and personalities – we need to protect this beautiful species.”
❛WE FOUND A BABY ELEPHANT LYING ALONE IN A BUSH WITH A BLOODY BULLET IN ITS KNEE ❜