Tallahassee Pet Shelter

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Carol Buckley is a specialist in the trauma recovery and on-going physical care of captive elephants.

From 1974 to the present, Buckley has been responsible for and responsive to elephants: caring for them, living with them, transporting them, spending nights out in the habitat with them, advocating for them, playing with them: she has been solely responsible for them and their relative happiness in captivity. Through her experience with elephants kept in zoos and circuses in the US and abroad, she has become a leading speaker and expert witness for captive elephants. She also works with federal, state, and foreign government agencies and with private organizations to create and to strengthen regulations that protect the welfare of elephants kept in captivity.

In 2010, Buckley founded Tennessee-based Elephant Aid International and began consulting worldwide to help improve the lives of captive elephants and their mahouts.

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Education and Work

Education

While a student at Moorpark College in 1974, Buckley was touched by a tiny baby elephant that a local tire dealer had bought to market his tires. Buckley volunteered to feed and care for the elephant named Fluffy. A year later, Buckley borrowed $25,000, bought Fluffy, changed her name to Tarra, and founded Tarra Productions.

'Tarra Productions' and the Awakening of an Elephant Welfare Activist

By 1980, Buckley had taught Tarra to roller skate. For the next 15 years, Buckley lived with, cared for, trained, transported and performed with Tarra in circuses and zoos in the United States and Canada. Tarra presented an Academy Award during one year.

In 1984 Buckley began to question the life that she had chosen for Tarra. One day, after a roller skating show, a woman approached Buckley and said: "That's abuse. You're abusing your animal by making her skate." Buckley knew Tarra enjoyed skating and was not being abused, but she then realized that she was creating the wrong impression about Tarra and elephants. Buckley did not believe that elephants exist to entertain people; she knew that each elephant's needs must come first. Around that same time, Tarra, then entering her preteens, had been observed swinging her trunk at people when Buckley's back was turned. Recognizing that Tarra was entering another phase in her growth from infant to adult, Buckley eventually stopped Tarra's roller skating act.

Buckley began to search for a better life for Tarra in a variety of zoos and animal parks where she worked and consulted, including African Lion Safari and Bowmanville Zoo in Ontario; the Racine Zoo in Wisconsin; and the Nashville Zoo in Tennessee. While Tarra would like each new zoo at first, she would soon be found standing by the enclosing fence swaying back and forth.

Buckley realized that a better life for a captive elephant, a place where elephants could walk and interact with nature, outside of the domination of people did not exist. After musing, analyzing, searching, designing and redesigning barns and land to meet Tarra's needs, Buckley was jolted into action by the horrific death of Tyke in Honolulu, Hawaii in August 1994. Tyke was fatally shot in front of many people after she killed her trainer and escaped the circus ring. This incident is still used by animal control people who want to convince their city councils not to allow wild animal circuses in their cities.

The Elephant Sanctuary (Hohenwald)

In November 1994, Carol Buckley, with a loan from the local bank, bought 112 acres in Hohenwald, Tennessee. Using the savings she and Tarra had acquired, Buckley built a barn for Tarra and co-founded the Elephant Sanctuary (Hohenwald) in Tennessee: The first natural habitat refuge for sick, old and needy elephants. In 1997 Buckley used the money from the sale of her home in Ojai, California. combined with her life savings as collateral, to get a loan to build a second barn to accept more needy elephants. From 1994 to 2009, Buckley used personal funds and collateral to ensure the Sanctuary's continued growth. Today, the Elephant Sanctuary (Hohenwald) is 2,700 acres (1,100 ha), housing African and Asian elephants in three separate sections with four new barns, enclosed by 20 miles (32 km) of fencing.

While at the Elephant Sanctuary, Buckley developed a non-dominant management system and an holistic healthcare program that supports the recovery of traumatized, injured, and sick elephants while allowing them, as much as possible, to make their own choices.

Buckley was personally responsible for rescuing each of the 24 elephants from zoos and circuses that moved to The Elephant Sanctuary (Hohenwald).

Founding Elephant

• Tarra (1995) - was Buckley's inspiration for sanctuary, Tyke a circus elephant who was killed as she tried to escape the circus., was the catalyst.

Rescued Elephants

Founding Herd

• Barbara (1996) - living alone at a Florida elephant breeding park because she had a wasting disease and was unbreedable.
• Jenny (1997) - sometimes called Jelly-Bean, was dumped, crippled, and found nearly dead at an old animal shelter near Las Vegas. When Shirley, below, arrived Jenny recognized her immediately, supporting the idea that "elephants never forget."
• Shirley (1999) - the matriarch of the herd, came from a zoo in Louisiana where she had lived alone for over 20 years; Shirley had been confiscated by Fidel Castro in Cuba when she had been working there with a circus.
• Bunny (1999) - came from Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville, Indiana, where she was loved but had feet problems and lived alone.
• Sissy (2000) - the city of El Paso, Texas voted to remove Sissy from their own zoo after a video surfaced which showed El Paso Zoo Elephant Keepers beating her.
• Winkie (2000) - retired from the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, Wisconsin which had no funds to maintain and upgrade her facility; she was known as a dangerous elephant having attacked several keepers.
• Tina (2003) - came from the Greater Vancouver Zoo in Canada, where she was well loved but had feet problems.

African elephants

• Tange (2004) - retired from Albany Georgia, the Chehaw Wild Animal Park, where Buckley had been employed as a consultant, see "Tarra Productions", above.
• Zula (2004) - arrived from the Chehaw Wild Animal Park in Albany, Georgia. Buckley consulted at the Chehaw Wild Animal Park when she worked in "Tarra Productions".
• Flora (2004) - retired from the Flora Circus after she attacked a woman; and from the Miami's MetroZoo (now Zoo Miami), where she attacked a keeper, and finally to sanctuary, and relative freedom. Transferred from John Cuneo Jr.'s Hawthorn Company as settlement of a suit brought by the USDA.
• Lota (2004) - an abused elephant, arrived for hospice care with advanced tuberculosis.
• Misty (2004) _ possibly infected with TB, Misty was freed with Lota. Two years later the rest of the herd arrived from John Cuneo Jr.'s Hawthorn Company as settlement of a suit brought by the USDA
• Minnie, Lottie, Queenie, Liz, Debbie, Ronnie, Billie, Frieda (2006)

Asian Elephants:

• Dulary (2007), retired from the Philadelphia Zoo where she had been isolated because of an eye injury; she is now integrated into the "Original, Founding Herd".

Other Elephants confiscated by the USDA

• Delhi (2003) - Confiscated from John Cuneo Jr.'s Hawthorn Company, (owner/trainer of Tyke). A keeper at John Cuneo Jr.'s Hawthorn Company had soaked Delhi's front legs in full strength formaldehyde which had severely burned her feet and legs and then the Hawthorn Corporation failed to provide veterinary care.
• Ned (2008) - was unhealthily thin; he was confiscated because the owner in Florida failed to comply with the Animal Welfare Act.

Buckley coordinated the rescue of the first elephant ever confiscated by the USDA and lobbied to have all of John Cuneo Jr.'s Hawthorn Elephants sent to the Elephant Sanctuary. In 2006 Buckley organized the rescue, an effort which had taken over 2 years and enormous focus and determination, of a group of eight female elephants confiscated from the Hawthorn Corporation by the USDA. She designed individualized treatment programs to help each of them recover from the physical, psychological and emotional effects of nearly four decades of circus life.

Elephant Aid International

In 2010, Buckley founded Elephant Aid International in Hohenwald, Tennessee.

Since the founding of EAI, Buckley has spent many months in Nepal, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka consulting on elephant foot care, target training and Compassionate Elephant Management (CEM) for elephants and their mahouts, and, the long-range goal of the creation of elephant centers throughout India. October 27, 2011, Carol Buckley has been officially engaged by the Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation Centre (WRRC) to create an Elephant Care and Rehabilitation Center (ECRC) in Karnataka, Bangalore, India. Buckley will remain on-site to supervise the Center's development and acquisition of elephants. Once the facility is well established, she will monitor the operations with regular extended visits throughout the year."

"When Buckley arrives in India in January 2012, she says, she will walk the land that has been acquired for the facility, determining where to build fences and working with Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, a partner organization, to learn how to work with Indian contractors. "I have a very clear vision about fencing, what elephants should be allowed to do, and how much freedom they need to thrive," she says. Other infrastructure that must be built includes shade structures, corral areas for medical attention and training (as well as sleeping), a veterinary lab and administrative office, plus housing for staff. The site already includes a 12-hectare facility that will be adapted for some of these needs."

Elephant Refuge North America (ERNA) in Attapulgus, GA

With knowledge gained from finding, creating, building and directing The Elephant Sanctuary (Hohenwald), as well as the knowledge gained from work on 'No Chain No Pain' projects and other sanctuary projects in Asia, Buckley created Elephant Refuge North America (ERNA) in 2016. The new Elephant Refuge in North America is located in Attapulgus, Georgia a few miles north of Tallahassee Florida. Buckley chose this site because it provides elephants 850 acres to wander day and night, including pastures, forests, ponds, around 50 inches rainfall year round, mild winters, hot humid summers. In addition the site will provide observation towers for people to watch the elephants, and a international education center.

General

Carol Buckley has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, Parade, Chicago Tribune, People and Readers Digest, and on Oprah, ABC News, 20/20, CBS News, CNN and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. and other printed and visual media.

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Selected works

Books

• Travels with Tarra, Tilbury House Publishers, January 2002, ISBN 978-0-88448-241-3.
• Just for Elephants Tilbury House Publishers, November 2006, ISBN 978-0-88448-283-3. 23 years before Shirley was relocated to the sanctuary, Jenny was an infant elephant at a circus and Shirley was recovering from a broken leg. Apparently they shared a stall for a few months. The 2000 PBS documentary "The Urban Elephant" retold the story of Shirley and Jenny's reunion.
• Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog who became best friends, Putnam Juvenile, September 8, 2009, ISBN 978-0-399-25443-7. The story of an elephant and a dog and their bond. This story was broadcast on CBS News, and then featured on newscasts and internet sites around the world.

Selected lectures

• 18th Annual Elephant Managers Association Workshop, Fort Worth Zoo, 1997, "The Elephant Sanctuary - A Natural Habitat Refuge for Asian Elephants". Carol Buckley, Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, TN 17 min.
• USDA Lecture 2001 "The Elephant Sanctuary- History of Success".
• Elephant Managers Conference 2001 "The Elephant Sanctuary-Passive Control Management".
• AZA Annual Conference 2001 Zoos, Sanctuaries And Animal Welfare Sanctuary: A Fundamental Requirement of Wildlife Management.
• Oakland Zoo Celebrating Elephants, 2002, Carol Buckley Featured Speaker. "Asian elephant expert and co-founder of the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, discussed her life-long journey with elephants and the creation of a natural habit refuge specifically developed for elephants. Buckley also shared plans for the arrival of the first African elephants to join the sanctuary".
• An Evening to Remember Because Elephants Never Forget 2003 Maine Friends of Animals & the Maine Animal Coalition, "The Elephant Sanctuary-A Window into the World of the Majestic Elephant."
• 20th Annual International Compassionate Living Festival, Raleigh, North Carolina 2005 The Power of One.
• The Elephant Sanctuary-A Compassionate Alternative Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, 2006, "The Elephant Sanctuary-Captive Elephants in Tennessee."
• A Symposium on Captive Elephants: Science & Well-Being April 17-19, 2006 Tufts University, North Grafton

Scholarly articles

• "Captive Elephant Foot Care: Natural-habitat Husbandry Techniques by Carol Buckley", The Elephant's Foot: Prevention and Care of Foot Conditions in Captive Asian and African Elephants, Chapter 6, Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, USA, 2001, 172 pp, ISBN 0-8138-2820-1.
• "Sanctuary: A Fundamental Requirement of Wildlife Management by Carol Buckley", An Elephant in the Room: The Science and Well-Being of Elephants in Captivity, Chapter 6: Center for Animals and Public Policy, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University, 2009.
• "The Art of Cultural Brokerage: Recreating Elephant-Human Relationship and Community Journal of Archetype and Culture", co-authors: Carol Buckley & G. A. Bradshaw, Minding the Animal Psyche, Chapter 3: volumn 83, Spring, 2010, 448 pp., ISBN 978-1-935528-07-4.
• "Tuberculosis in Elephants: Antibody Responses to Defined Antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Potential for Early Diagnosis, and Monitoring of Treatment", Konstantin P. Lyashchenko, Rena Greenwald, Javan Esfandiari, John H. Olsen, Ray Ball, Genevieve Dumonceaux, Freeland Dunker, Carol Buckley et al., Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, p. 722-732, July 2006, Vol. 13, No. 7.
• "EMA Statement on Free/Protected Contact" by Carol Buckley, D. Collins, C. Doyle, G. Johnson, J. Lehnhardt, & D. Redfox, Elephant Managers' Journal (EMA), pp. 9-12, III Indianapolis, IN., 1992.

Training videos and other materials

• SAURAHA Elephant Foot Care Workshop May 2010 -Chitwan, Nepal.
• Positive Reinforcement Target Training video, level 1. August 2011.
• Elephant Footcare (video),
• "Unchained" "This is a film of the peaceful and educational activism of Carol Buckley (Founder and CEO at Elephant Aid International) about elephants in captivity and how they are trained, forced to long working hours and living in a clearly improvable conditions."

Source of the article : Wikipedia