Free at last: Elephant 'cries' while being rescued after 50 years of abuse
be warned
Heart wrenching pictures and video
at link but it does have a happy ending.
An elephant that was kept in chains for 50 years and abused by a drug addict who used the animal to beg has been freed.
Raju had been beaten and starved since being poached from the wild as a baby and resorted to eating paper and plastic to fill his stomach.
The chains and spikes wrapped around his legs had left him with chronic wounds and arthritis and he was in almost constant pain.
But now he is walking free for the first time after a daring rescue by conservationists with a court order by the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department to take the elephant from his abusive owner.
The charity took Raju in the middle of the night on Thursday, supported by police and state officials.
The elephant's mahout and previous owner tried to stop him being taken by adding more chains and having people block the roads for the rescue lorry.
Experts worked for hours to gain the elephant's trust with fruit and encouragement until they could get him into the van that would take him to a sanctuary.
When Raju was being rescued, volunteers said they saw tears rolling down his face.
Pooja Binepal, from Wildlife SOS UK, said: "The team were astounded to see tears roll down his face during the rescue. It was so incredibly emotional for all of us.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/37969465.cms?
= new reply since forum marked as read
Elephants are such amazing creatures. I still get shivers when I think about this:
http://www.chicagonow.com/animals-know/2013/03/elephants-journey-to-pay-respects/
I'm so glad that he will now have a good life.
... in the video (from the OP link) said he died one day after he was freed. THAT is what is so sad.
Warning: there is a photo accompanying this article that is heartbreaking. (Elephant caught in a pit trap.)
BBC News
6 July 2014
Cruel trade in Asian elephants threatens survival
By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News
(excerpt)
The methods used to capture and train the elephants are particularly cruel.
Domesticated animals are used to herd wild ones into pit traps, where the older members are often shot. The younger elephants are then taken to the Thai-Myanmar border area where they are "broken in"...
..."They are put in small log boxes and just beaten into submission," said Dr Shepherd.
"They are a bit like a light switch - you take a wild elephant and beat it long enough and suddenly the switch goes off and you have a tame elephant.... MORE at http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28161472
Thanks for the thread, Ichingcarpenter. 
but no matter, as long as this news, that has spread like wildfire, helps stop injustice to elephants I'm in!
some people 
some people 
