Help rescue elephants from cruelty
Article updated Jan 2007

	Lota chained in a barn at the Hawthorn Corporation.
	Rescued elephants living at the Elephant Sanctuary.

UPDATE Jan 2007: In 2006 six more elephants were moved from Hawthorn to the Elephant Sanctuary. To learn more see the Elephant Sanctuary website click here.

OLD UPDATE: On 17th November 2004 CAPS received word from the Elephant Sanctuary that Lota and Misty finally arrived at the sanctuary. Fundraising is continuing to help the sanctuary rescue more of the elephants. Thank you to everyone who has supported this appeal.

Original story from 2003
In April 2003 the Hawthorn Corporation, a United States company that trains and 'rents' animals to circuses, was charged with numerous counts of cruelty and neglect to 16 elephants.

In November 2003, in an unprecedented action, the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) confiscated 58-year-old Delhi a year and a half after her feet were soaked in full strength formaldehyde by a Hawthorn employee. She was sent to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, USA, where she is currently recovering and doing very well.

In March 2004, to settle the lawsuit filed against him by the USDA, Hawthorn owner John Cuneo voluntarily relinquished all 16 of his elephants. Cuneo agreed to place his elephants in other facilities by August 15 2004.

The Elephant Sanctuary is standing ready to receive as many of the Hawthorn elephants as funding will permit. They have raised enough money to accommodate six elephants, including Lota and Misty who both suffer from tuberculosis. Lota and Misty should arrive at the Sanctuary soon, while the other four are in temporary accommodation until new housing at the Sanctuary has been built.

Unless additional housing can be secured and the funding raised to build extra facilities the Sanctuary will be unable to accept more than six of the Hawthorn elephants.

Please consider making a donation, however small or large, to the Elephant Sanctuary, towards the rescue of these elephants. If the Sanctuary does not have the funds to help the elephants some may end up in zoos and circuses, possibly facing the same fate from which they were rescued.

The Elephant Sanctuary is one of the few places in the world that really provides a true sanctuary to elephants rescued from the cruelty of zoos and circuses. The Sanctuary consists of 2,700 acres which protects two growing herds of Asian and African elephants.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

For more information on the charges against Hawthorn Corporation and the rescue of the elephants see the Elephant Sanctuary website.