MAYDAY! Hearing The Call and Taking Action
Yesterday was May 1st, historically, a day of huge significance for cultures around the world.
To the ancient Celts it was the day of Beltane (the spring festival of rebirth) the Greeks celebrated with flower baskets, parts of the UK still see the spring in with maypoles, garlands and Morris dancers!
What a terrific way to honor what we at Arte for Elephants and our many fabulous friends, are working towards.
Rebirth.
Sanctuary is really a place of healing and discovery for abused elephants. These sensitive intelligent souls, who, through no fault of their own have been in prisoned (in zoos) forced to perform (in circuses) not to mention temple elephants, tourist riding elephants, logging and begging. Any elephant expert will tell you that the transformations that occur in sanctuary can be nothing short of miraculous. Elephants who are broken, violent, lonely, swaying back and forth on chains for decades, can discover a whole new side of themselves. Once free to make their own decisions their true natures can emerge like butterflies, their funny, curious, even sometimes bratty personalities come out. A true rebirth!
MAYDAY
A second, and equally important meaning of MayDay, is as the universally recognized call of distress. Any military brat (such as myself) will know the meaning. Originally chosen in WW1 by an English soldier who thought that MayDay sounded like the French phrase "HELP ME" May Day has been used ever since. It's so significant, that it's actually illegal to say MayDay 3 times in a row on the radio unless you are really in distress!
Elephants are calling out to us, no, not with physical voices, but with the unbearable nature of their suffering. I KNOW you hear it! We meet people every day who state " Elephants just speak to me".. now, you can call me strange, but I firmly believe that elephants actually are, indeed SPEAKING to us all. Their pain is palpable, their suffering tangible, across thousands of miles, the energy of that distress call hits us.. MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY!! HELP ME!
Got that? MAYDAY! We have our marching orders!
Worried that you can't be the "Jane Goodall" of elephant rescue, so what? You know what you can do? Tell a friend "don't ride elephants" on their vacation to Thailand, " don't buy ivory" when they go to China. Tweet!
Sign those online petitions!
Join one of the many amazing FB groups working to free lone elephants such as Kavaan (Karachi Zoo, Pakistan) Lucy (Edmonton, Canada) Billy (Los Angeles Zoo) Nosey (Exploited all around the US as an elephant for hire).
Do that research! There are many places that bill themselves as "sanctuaries" places where, if you look closely enough, bull hooks are present! BOYCOTT the zoos, join a protest, start a penny collection and donate your spare change to worthy sanctuaries around the planet! SHOP ethically.
So here it is, those elephants ARE speaking to YOU, and only YOU know how you can use the resources you have to save them. So what are you waiting for. MAYDAY is here, and there is work to be done! (Photo by D. Rutter)
