SATURDAY BRUNCH WITH ELEPHANTS and ELEPHANTVOICES

[Guest guest]

 

You’re Invited to a SATURDAY BRUNCH WITH ELEPHANTS and ELEPHANTVOICES

 

 

 

 

A benefit for PAWS’ Elephants and ElephantVoices

Saturday, November 15, 2008

11am – 1pm

The Elephant Habitat at ARK2000San Andreas, CA

$ 100 per person

A vegetarian lunch buffet will be served

There will be a benefit silent auction

RSVP deadline Nov 5, 2008

Credit card reservations 209.745.2606

Mail check to PAWS, PO Box 849, Galt, CA 95632

Limited space - reserve early (directions provided with paid reservations)

 

 

Picture this:

Minneriya-Kaudulla National Park, Sri Lanka.

As Joyce Poole and Petter Granli, the founders of ElephantVoices, observe a mild mannered, curious family of Asian elephants, one adult female, they later dub Mama Kali (Kiswahili for fierce), steps out from the crowd and approaches to within feet of the jeep. Vigorously flapping her ears and thumping the ground with her trunk, she produces a cacophony of sounds, the likes of which they have not heard in Africa. Joyce is recording and Petter filming when, roaring, rumbling and squeaking, Mama Kali kicks the jeep, smashing the sidelights!

 

For the average tourist, this might make a memorable YouTube video. But for Joyce Poole, the world’s leading elephant scientist and advocate, it is much more. Because of her 33-year study of African elephants in Amboseli, Kenya, the longest running elephant study in the world, she knows that Mama Kali’s anger is the result of her past experiences with people. As human populations grow, increasing pressure is put on limited resources, and elephants and humans come into conflict. Mama Kali isn’t about to cede ground without a fight.

 

But she’ll soon learn that Joyce and Petter are her friends. Joyce’s study of African elephants has had the direct result of changing attitudes toward elephants, providing the raw material and the voice to challenge the status quo. For ElephantVoices, elephant conservation is about the species and the individual. This year, with Manori Gunawardena, they begin a similar social behavior study and conservation project in Sri Lanka, gathering data on wild Asian elephants crucial to their protection, and educating people.

 

How does ElephantVoices’ work protect elephants? Animal lovers and conscientous citizens everywhere know that elephants belong in the wild, not in captivity, but there is a long tradition of zoos and circuses which contradicts that sentiment, claiming that captive elephants behave normally. Joyce knows the truth. Armed with facts and scientific data from decades of study, she has argued successfully on behalf of elephants like Maggie that very large spaces, like that offered by PAWS, provide the best possible life for those who find themselves captive. As an expert witness in the current case against Ringling Brothers, she looks forward to a day when there will be no need to rescue circus elephants. She fights for the protection of wild elephant on the large scale and the small. She was author of the proposal that banned the ivory trade in 1989, she fought for the Tuli elephants in 1998 and this year her voice helped stop the practice of wild elephant capture in South Africa, victories unlikely to have been won without Joyce’s solid science and ElephantVoices’ tireless advocacy.

 

Without strong advocacy backed by unequivocal scientific data, these noble and benign wild creatures face a continued threat. Asian elephants need the power of Joyce and Petter’s efforts to protect them. In Minneriya-Kaudulla, Sri Lanka, elephants gather in the open to feed on the receding waters of a reservoir and it is here where Joyce has launched the Asian chapter of her life’s work. ElephantVoices must raise an additional $100,000 per year to make this unprecedented and crucial study a success while continuing their long-term work on African elephants. This is where you can help.

 

And you can meet Joyce Poole and Petter Granli from ElephantVoices in person.

Pat Derby and Ed Stewart, the founders of PAWS, invite you to a benefit luncheon in honor of Joyce and Petter’s West Coast visit. Hear Joyce speak, see the PAWS elephants, and enjoy a sumptuous vegetarian lunch buffet with other committed elephant lovers.

 

And kick in what you can! Together, we can keep wild elephants wild and move captive elephants into sanctuary. Your commitment and generosity can keep Mama Kali where she wants to be, kicking in the wild.