HOPE, Maine — More than 100 people wandered about a new barn here to hear about Rosie, a 42-year-old elephant that soon might move into a stall — but the No. 1 question still goes unanswered: When will she be here?
“We don’t have a date yet. It’s torture. Dealing with the government is like running through syrup,” said Jim Laurita, a veterinarian who is working to bring Rosie to his home.
So far he has permission from the town. But state and federal licenses for the animal depended on the barn being built. Now that it’s just about complete, Laurita can move forward with those applications.
Rosie suffers from arthritis. Rather than let her live out her days in Oklahoma with a herd of 27 other elephants from the Carson and Barnes Circus, Laurita and the circus have a new idea: Send Rosie to Maine and use her as a sort of experiment in elephant physical therapy. Laurita then will share any tactics that work with circus trainers to help with any future bouts of arthritis in the herd.
To do this, Laurita set up a nonprofit group, Hope Elephants, to raise donations to build the barn and pay for Rosie’s travel and expenses. On Tuesday, he let the public explore his new stable and paddock.
The barn will give Rosie about 1,200 square feet to live in. It’s on a radiant-heated slab that will keep her warm and ease the pain of her arthritis, Laurita said. Inside the barn, Rosie’s stall is walled in with three tiers of half-inch steel cables secured to steel pipes that are sunk into a concrete floor.
“It’s elephant-ready now,” Laurita said, standing in the sand-filled pen.
In the middle of the indoor paddock is a large pile of sand. Rosie likes to lie on a hillside. It makes it easier for her to get up, Laurita said. This will allow her to do that indoors. If for some reason she can’t get up, the barn has a built-in overhead crane that attaches to a rubbery, inflatable mat that can be used to help lift Rosie onto her feet, he said.
A garage-style door gives Rosie access to a 1-acre paddock with apple trees. It’s not unlike a horse paddock except that instead of an electric fence, the elephant will have to contend with steel cables and a green chain-link fence if she attempts to escape.
Most of the people who walked through the indoor pen and poked around outside were supportive of Laurita’s attempts to bring Rosie to Maine.
“It’s fantastic to know this is happening in Maine, right here,” said Carol Lally of Belfast as she stood outside in the snow looking at the elephant pasture. She is especially excited for her 9-year-old grandson, who attends a local school. Laurita’s plan is to invite local schoolchildren to the barn to learn about elephants.
David Jacobson of Montville was another avid supporter at Tuesday’s open house.
“I think it’s fascinating. It’s such an odd thing, a radical idea,” he said. “She will get first-class care here and it’s great for the community and maybe for the economy.”
Perhaps the biggest supporters were the many visiting children, who screamed for elephant-shaped cookies. One child dressed up in his Halloween elephant costume jumped up and down excitedly, clinging to a steel wire on the outside of the pen.
“I like elephants,” said Elizabeth Bowman, 7, who has never seen a real elephant. “We could take care of it.”
Some people don’t think so.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has been skeptical of the size of the paddock and the climate in Maine. The nonprofit In Defense of Animals wrote to Gov. Paul LePage asking him not to allow the project to proceed for the same reasons.
Barbara Faviccha of Camden is another skeptic.
“It’s tiny,” Faviccha said after visiting the barn on Tuesday. “That’s what bothered me the most. The space is so inadequate.”
Faviccha also was concerned that Rosie would be lonely, because elephants are herd animals.
Laurita has dismissed all of these concerns. Yes, Maine is cold, but the barn is heated and other zoos in the nation are in colder places, he has said. The space is not small, he said. As far as a herd, Laurita already is looking into bringing a second elephant to Hope to share the barn and paddock with Rosie.
Rosie is a lucky elephant, indeed. Dr. Laurita and his family are caring, knowledgeable people with much love, energy, and enthusiasm. Rosie will have a wonderful home.
Please do some research and reading on the elephant sanctuaries. (TES and PAWS) See what they do and can offer Rosie in her retirement. Truely caring and knowledgeable people would not sentence this animal to death in Hope, Maine. Very sad for Rosie indeed.
I so agree TuckerD. My heart breaks every time I think of that poor abused animal coming to Maine only to be held captive in inadequate and cruel conditions yet again. While the good Dr and his family may think themselves caring and knowlegeable and appear full of energy and enthusiasm, it is none the less obvious that they are woefully ignorant of what it takes to correctly and humanely care for an animal as special as an elephant, and sadly an elephant with many and varied physical and mental problems to overcome. It will be difficult to do in solitary confinement.
Dr. Laurita and his family may be caring, knowledgeable people with much love, energy and enthusiasm but unfortunately they are not knowledgeable in the care of elephants, love them or care about them because if they did they wouldn’t be doing this. Please read all of the quoted comments from experts and look into why zoos and circuses kill elephants prematurely and can not duplicate the environment they MUST have for physical and mental well-being.
Hopefully, State and Federal authorities will be very deliberative and will NOT issue licenses for this terrible idea. Rosie deserves and needs sanctuary.
I am surprised that no one is questioning why Carson and Barnes Circus is not paying for all of this and why the tiny community of Hope is stuck with trying to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for her care? Rosie worked for that circus for FORTY years – surely any specialized treatment she might need is their responsibility?
Rosie is not lucky. If she ends up having to live out her winters in that unbelievably small stall she would be an extremely unfortunate elephant. The sand pile takes up a lot of space as does a smaller stall that has been added within the larger one to be used as a washstall. There is no room for her to walk around the sand pile on that end.
It’s astounding that that small space is claimed to be adequate for even one elephant. The big question is – where in the world would a second elephant fit in that stall? (Would they have to be chained to keep them apart?)The fact that other elephants suffer in colder areas does not make it right to house an elephant in Maine, especially when she could live out her life in great comfort, physically and mentally, in an established sanctuary. To keep her in the barn I saw today would be terribly cruel.
Here is a great way to spend 15 minutes learning about elephants http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5454083
Dear bszasz,
Your contention that an animal working its whole life deserves special treatment rings of socialism. Tell that elephant to pull up its trunk and earn a living. God Bless Mr. Lepage.
You’re obviously not educated, or you wouldn’t be making cracks this that. As for Mr Lepage, may he come back as an elephant in a circus in his afterlife..
This has to be one of the most self centered ideas I’ve heard of in a long time. Because this veterinarian wants an elephant, he is asking the town to raise funds for it? What training and experience does Dr. Laurita have? The elephant vet at PAWS sanctuary has stated she is skeptical of this whole move. This poor animal has spent her life tortured by the circus for “entertainment” purposes. Now she is to be “experiemented” with in a harsh cold climate while in an undersized barn in solitary confinment. Shame on Carson and Barnes and Dr. Laurita for this hair brained idea and SHAME on Hope, Maine for allowing it to go forward. Do the humane thing here and send Rosie to a Sanctuary with the experience to help her with all her medical needs and other elephants to fulfill her social needs. Thank you.
Lack of adequate space is the reason zoos have closed elephant exhibits: “…Asian elephants shouldn’t live in small groups without many acres to roam,” Detroit Zoo director Ron Kagan….” Nat Geo, 2006 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20…_elephants.html
“Captivity is institutionalized trauma…. Visiting zoos is no different from visiting
prisons. These places are filled with animals suffering horribly, surviving by
living in disturbing mental states and behaviors such as self-mutilation,
depression, unhappiness, premature death, elephants living half as long as
their free ranging counterparts, mothers killing their babies, aggression and
fighting. Would you bring your child to a concentration camp or to a prison?
The comparison is no exaggeration.” – Dr. Gay Bradshaw http://www.izilwane.org/revisiting-gay-bradshaws-work.html
This is a wonderful thing for this vet to do and 1 acre for a paddock is much larger than the area in a zoo. I hope he allows the public to visit my kids would love to see an elephant.
Shame on you! Educate yourself before you take your child to see an elephant in any circus or zoo, and don’t think for a minute that this Hope facility is any different!
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5454083 Watch this!
If your children want to see elephants ” being elephants” check out The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennesee’s webcams. http://www.elephants.com/elecam/elecamAfricans.php In the summer they swim in the ponds and it is fun to watch. Your children can read the stories of each elephant and learn to reconize them by site. They can save their pennies and send a donation for their favorite elephant. This is educating your children about the plight of the largest mammal on earth. Please look at other ways to teach your children, for they are the future who will hopefully save these magnificent animals. After you read about elephants and their plight in captivity you will see what a mistake this is for Hope, Maine to allow to go forward. Thank you.
It seems to me that Hope Elephants’ mission is actually
to support and encourage the continuing use of performing elephants by Carson
& Barnes. If I am correct, then the proposed “experiments” on Rosie
will be little more than exercises in damage limitation with regard to
captivity-induced arthritis. Hope Elephants will be doing nothing to remove the
problem – rather, they will be giving the green light to Carson & Barnes to
continue exploiting elephants and, when an elephant develops arthritis, Hope
Elephants will attempt to “fix it”. And on the education front, maybe the good
people of Maine
should ask themselves why elephants held in close captivity by the circus and
zoo industries suffer from cripplingly-painful arthritis and other joint
ailments – conditions rarely seen in free-roaming wild elephants.
Don’t forget to point out – decades of forced unnatural movements – standing on their heads, walking on back legs, sitting on stools – that’s the true cause of their muscle and joint injuries.
ALL currently captive ELEPHANTS deserve wide open, enriching space in a temperate climate with other elephants for socializing. Anything less than that, in my opinion, is abuse.
Who’d have thought that there are so many elephant experts who read the Bangor Daily News! SHAME on you naysayers who have appointed yourselves arbiters of all things elephant. Can’t you find something else to b**** about?
It’s clear you have not done any research and have read nothing written by experts who have dedicated their lives to elephants. As I have suggested before, take 15 minutes to view this video with an open mind and see if you don’t come away with the realization that it is dangerous and cruel to house Rosie in Hope –
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5454083
All of the experts in the video wrote letters to the Town of Hope in an attempt to stop this tragedy. They know what they are talking about. SHAME ON YOU for commenting with little background knowledge.
The man is trying to learn how to relieve the arthritis pain that the elephants have when they get old, what is wrong with that?? He could leave Rosie where she is and let her live her days in pain. But he is trying to find a way to help all elephants by bringing her here and using his knowledge to discover a treatment. As for how big the barn is,, she was in the circus so she is used to smaller spaces and is in too much pain to run around. I am living with arthritis so I know how Rosie is suffering.
pavint46, I suffer from arthritis as well, but I surely wouldn’t want to be used in experiments that would perpetuate the captivity industry. Please educate yourself about the plight of circus animals before you speak so kindly about this doctor, who, by the way, is going to use Rosie as a moneymaker, an entertainer, no better than the circus she comes from. Elephants do not belong in zoos or in the circus. Try confining yourself to a bathroom for life before you sentence Rosie to this small stall to live out her days, probably alone. Watch this video to educate yourself: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5454083
There is nothing that he is planning to do that hasn’t been done – in spades. Most long-term zoo elephants are on various mixes of painkillers and anti-inflammatories – precisely because of confinement on concrete floors & inactivity. Other modalities of treatment – osteopathy, homeopathy, etc. have been evaluated and used at professional sanctuaries. His idea of a water treadmill is ludicrous – Alaska Zoo spent a full year and wasted over $100,000 trying to coax Maggie, their African elephant, to get more than two feet on a treadmill. If you know anything about elephant communication, you know that their feet are incredibly sensitive to vibration – their low frequency rumbles actually allow them to communicate over miles. And as for communication – Rosie has performed with the same friends for decades. Some speculate that a main reason elephants survive circuses is because they have family bonds that give them reason to live. They say Rosie is being bullied by the others – which really means that the elephants there don’t have enough room to move out of trouble. If you suffer from arthritis, would you accept an offer of being in solitary confinement, with nothing to do and no where to move, in the Antarctic? Maybe if you were drugged to the gills, which is what I expect will be the true treatment .
Placing Rosie in this small facility in order to conduct “experiments”, results of which would be used by circuses, only perpetuates captivity of these wild, wonderful creatures. Rosie has done her duty being a moneymaker for the circus, and she now deserves a SANCTUARY, not another place where she may be alone, confined, used and abused for money and greed of humans. Shame on the town of Hope for condoning this idea. It’s akin to allowing someone to keep their child in a bathroom for the rest of their life. Shame on all of you who would allow this to happen just so you can take your kid to see a poor elephant who is suffering and abused.
Why have recent comments, challenging and questioning bringing Rosie to Maine, been removed from Hope Elephants’ facebook page. Why are the Lauritas so afraid of having an intelligent conversation about this??? SHAME ON THEM. They are doing the community a great disservice and should be called out on it publicly. What are they trying to hide and cover up?
ETA – The fb posts did not only challenge and question, many contained links to important information not provided by Hope Elephants.
Excellent question!! What are they trying to hide? Perhaps an informed and enlightened public is the most threatening thing to the Laurita’s plan. Maybe the good people of Hope, Maine are seeing their charitable donations would be better spent on a well thought out project and not one that will endanger the life of Rosie. Without donations they may have to come up with more of their own cash. It doesn’t surprise me that they don’t want an informed discussion and will delete disenting opinions. Hopefully people will see thru it all and put a stop to this fiasco. Good job pointing out the facebook deletions Mainegal12.
They bill themselves as an “educational destination” but only present one side of the issue instead of encouraging adults, and teaching children, to gather information and think critically. While the Camden Rockport Elementary School encourages penny drives to financially support HE, the Skillin School Library teaches their students to research the issue and come to their own conclusion – http://skillinlibrary.blogspot.com/
Bravo Skillin School Library!!!
Wow, at about 4:30 this afternoon HE posted an informative article about elephants and the ivory trade – that has nothing to do with keeping elephants in captivity, but at least it’s not a plea for donations, I guess. Perhaps the connection has something to do with conservation, but kids don’t learn about conservation by seeing an elephant imprisoned in a small stall – that actually sends the wrong message.
Here, a child psychiatrist discusses why sanctuaries, with their large natural habitats teach children positive lessons about wildlife vs zoos (read – animals in small cages exhibiting unnatural behavior) that teach negative lessons and values toward wild animals.
http://www.animaltalkmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=795
The SCIENCE is here showing how inhumane the HE, Maine project would be for Rosie. The Lauritas don’t want the truth to come out about how their tiny facility would be a mental and physical torture chamber for Rosie. Chronic stress, trauma and anguish are shared experiences across the mammalian species.
“Chronic…stress can…impair genes…compromised immunology, and other physical
problems….”
-Dr. G. Bradshaw http://www.edutopia.org/elephant-violence
this is so wrong on so many levels.
As quickly as people continue to post opposing opinions and more comprehensive information and links concerning elephants in captivity, they are being deleted from the Hope Elephants fb page. I wonder who has the job of overseeing the page and deleting the posts? Does Dr. Laurita condone this??? Perhaps we can get in touch by email to ask him or to impart important information?
info@hopeelephants.org