I feel very passionately about the work that The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is doing, and it all boils down to RIGHT vs. WRONG.
Innocent wild elephants living in protected park are being killed every 15 minutes by criminals. They will be extinct in the wild in the next 10 years if this does not change. This is WRONG. Criminals are killing elephants to fund terrorism and crime—literally buying weapons to kill people with the money they make from selling the elephant tusks on the black market. A main reason they are able to do this is because the demand for ivory trinkets is so high. I believe that this demand comes from lack of awareness on the consumer’s part. We must make people aware that buying ivory is supporting not just the death and destruction of these beautiful animals, but of humans as well. Most people don’t realize that this is a problem with global effects, not one limited to somewhere far removed from our daily lives.
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is dedicated to saving these animals. They rescue the baby elephants who have lost their family to poaching and would otherwise die, vulnerable and unable to take care of themselves alone. The Trust nurtures these orphans back to health, with the ultimate goal of then reintroducing them to the wild in one of the protected parks. When the babies arrive at the nursery in Kenya, they are traumatized, having just seen their family brutally killed, and some don’t survive because of their injuries, shock and heartbreak. Yet through the love of the Keeper’s at the nursery, amazingly these animals come to forgive humans and trust the ones caring for them. To witness this is profound. And so RIGHT.
Being able to help support the Trust through “adopting” a baby orphaned elephant allows each of us to be a part of protecting these innocent animals, and ultimately protecting ourselves as well. I believe that the violent people in the world sometimes win because the rest if us are focused on our day to day lives and are unaware of the bad things that are happening. In the case of elephant poaching, it is not too late to make a difference. We actually have the ability to change the course of the future for these majestic creatures. We can stop them from becoming extinct.
This is why I believe in the work of The David Sheldrick Trust so much. They love and nurture the orphans. They protect the wild elephants with 8 anti- poaching teams. They treat the wounded animals with 3 vet teams. They protect the land. They educate people through their community projects. We can all be a part of what is RIGHT in our world. One of the ways I do this is helping The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
I want my daughter to grow up in a world where elephants are living I’m the wild, not just in her books. I want to be able to say that we protected what is beautiful in our world from the bad people, and in doing that, also made everyone safer.
You can learn more about The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and adopt an elephant orphan for a child in your life at www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org.
