"The Elephants Come First"

"They've taken everything: my dog, my bird, my cat, my home, my life's work - my elephant."  Carol Buckley

That's a piteous plaint.  From a woman who has dedicated her life to the welfare of superannuated animals.  Not just any animals, but pachyderms, the largest of land mammals.  Elephants have always fascinated people; their size, their very particular design by nature, but above all their willingness to live among humans; submissive to the direction of puny human beings, these powerful animals capable of wreaking destruction, or allowing themselves to behave meekly by instruction of a mahout or someone exercising the power of persuasion.

They are used, and often dreadfully misused, as beasts of burden.  Their intelligence and the longevity of their memories is legendary.  Their empathetic care for one another, and their collective assumption of responsibility for the calves and the elderly among them puts the lie to the often heard flippant comments that animals have limited intelligence and feel no emotions.  They have demonstrated often enough over their long acquaintanceship with humankind that they are capable of performing complex and quite demanding tasks on command and demand.  And are capable of reciprocal care.

That an American woman recognized their exceptionality as intelligent animals, and sought to offer to such large beasts the opportunity to live in retirement comfort when they were no longer prized by the zoos and circuses which made public spectacles of them speaks volumes for her compassionate nature.  And she, along with an animal trainer was instrumental in launching a sanctuary for elephants, where they would be valued and cared for in an natural-landscape area approximating their natural habitat.

This refuge would gain international appeal, and people sympathetic to the plight of aging and ill elephants contributed charitable funding for the enterprise, which grew in reputation and size: known as The Elephant Sanctuary, located in rural Tennessee.  The sanctuary that this place represented for these great beasts, and the experienced expertise of Carol Buckley as an authority in elephant rehabilitation speaks volumes about the woman.

Now she has launched a lawsuit against the board members of the sanctuary who had seen fit to remove her from office as the sanctuary's president and chief executive officer.  They also forced her to vacate her home on the grounds of the sanctuary.  Worse, for this dedicated woman, was her forced separation from the 36-year-old female Asian elephant whom she had named Tara, and which she had raised from a calf.

Ms. Buckley's contention is that she was deliberately slandered by board members who informed donors that she engaged in "illegal practices" and that her demeanor toward the elephants was one of "aggression".  The motivating factor, she insists, was her opposition to a $60,000 payment to the spouse of a board member.  She wants her position restored to her; above all, she wants to be reunited with Tara: "This is my elephant.  She's my family."

Ms. Buckley has great support among experts in the world of animal conservation.  A good proportion of the sanctuary's tens of thousands of members have withheld their donations, in her support.  One might think that for the best interests of the animals and the ongoing work of the sanctuary, a degree of accommodation might be arrived at between the conflicted parties.