HOPE, Maine — The day after Dr. Jim Laurita was crushed to death by one of his two retired circus elephants, one local official said he wasn’t sure what the next steps will be for Rosie, Opal, or the Hope Elephants nonprofit organization.
The shock and sadness of the loss of Laurita, a beloved veterinarian who co-founded the nonprofit in 2011 to help geriatric Asian elephants Rosie and Opal, were palpable in Hope, which has a population of just 1,500 or so, according to Town Administrator Jon Duke.
“It’s not any easier to take today than yesterday,” he said Wednesday. “It’s a small, tight-knit community. Everyone knows everyone. Obviously, 24 hours afterward, we’re still in shock.”
Duke said that the board of directors of the organization had met Wednesday morning, and he believed they planned to issue a press release later that afternoon, though he did not know what information it would include. Calls and emails to Hope Elephants were not immediately returned.
“It’s hard to separate Hope Elephants from Jim Laurita. So much of this was his heart and his passion,” Duke said. “They need to do what’s best for the organization and the family. They’ve been a great part of the town. … I don’t know what the future holds.”
On Wednesday, police released a few more details about the circumstances of Laurita’s death. It was the veterinarian’s practice to wake up early to feed the two 8,000-pound elephants, who slept in a special corral in the barn next to his house, according to Chief Deputy Tim Carroll of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office. Laurita would then go to his house for a cup of coffee, returning a bit later to tend to them again. It was during his second visit of the day, when he was working alone inside the elephant corral, that the veterinarian appears to have fallen and hit his head on the edge of the concrete walkway that bordered part of the elephant enclosure, Carroll said.
When paramedics arrived at the scene Tuesday morning, the elephants were still in the corral, where they did not seem to act aggressive or excited, he said.
“As far as the scene goes, there’s nothing disturbed traumatically in the area. Nothing that leads us to believe anything other than that he was on the ground and one of the elephants accidentally stepped on him,” Carroll said Wednesday. “From what I’ve been told, elephants are very caring animals. If they sensed something was wrong, they might have gone to help.”
According to Duke, because Laurita’s vision of bringing elephants to live in Hope was so “bizarre to begin with,” when the fledgling nonprofit agency was trying to get permission from the town to do so, he met with a lot of pushback. More criticism came from national groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, than locally, the administrator said.
“For a lot of people, Jim was their vet, and people have a special relationship with their vet,” he said. “[They’d say], ‘I trust him to take care of my dog — why wouldn’t I trust him to take care of an elephant?’”
In order to secure permission from the town and from state and federal agencies to build the facility, Laurita created emergency contingency plans, Duke said. Those included what to do in case one of the elephants escaped or if Laurita was injured. On Tuesday, Hope Elephant officials contacted a person listed as the emergency elephant caretaker to come to Maine for Rosie and Opal.
“From everything I know, everything is following procedure,” Duke said. “But regardless of the best-laid plans, it’s still a shock.”
The day after the tragedy, PETA issued a statement calling for Rosie and Opal to be sent to a “true, accredited sanctuary in a more appropriate, warmer climate.”
“When people ignore experts’ recommendation to keep a constant, secure barrier between elephants and humans (known as ‘protected contact’), the consequences can be disastrous,” Delcianna Winders, the deputy general counsel for the organization, said. “Dr. James Laurita’s death must serve as a wake-up call that ‘free contact’ easily becomes deadly contact.”
One official from a California animal welfare group said after Laurita’s death that he would like to know more about the safety protocols in place at the Hope Elephants facility.
“It’s always a tragedy when somebody is injured or killed in an elephant-associated death,” Ed Stewart, the co-founder and president of PAWS, the Performing Animals Welfare Society, said Tuesday. “It just affirms the fact that elephants really do not belong in captivity at all … It’s really unfortunate that [Laurita’s] life had to end this way. I never met him, but I understand he was always trying to help elephants. We respect people who were trying to do that.”
Stewart said that when Laurita was starting Hope Elephants, his agency was leery of his plan. At PAWS, the elephants that have sanctuary there do not come into direct contact with people, but instead are limited to what he termed “protected contact.” That means that there is always a steel barrier wall between elephants and people.
“Humans don’t go inside with the elephant,” he said. “Elephants are just dangerous. They’re big and intelligent, and they kill a lot of people … If you’re in protected contact, you have to make a big mistake to get injured by an elephant.”
Sarah Cunningham, a Unity College professor who teaches captive wildlife care, said that Laurita’s commitment to finding innovative ways to provide the geriatric elephants with relief was powerful to her students, who worked with him.
“One of the side effects of improved care for wildlife in captivity is that the animals are living longer than ever before. So there’s lots of work being done to develop new veterinary solutions for health issues that arise,” she said. “Our students at Unity College have learned a lot from Dr. Laurita and his approach to elephant care, and we’re terribly saddened by his death.”
Duke said that no one in Hope questioned Laurita’s love and concern for animals, especially the two retired circus elephants. Since Hope Elephants opened its doors, all sorts of schoolchildren had the chance to watch Rosie and Opal in wonder and to hear from Laurita about the importance of wildlife conservation, one of his passions. Last year, 17,000 people came to Hope to see the elephants — ten times the town’s population.
“Rosie and Opal are part of everyone’s family in midcoast Maine,” Duke said. “Hope Elephants has been a huge part of our community since it started … I think a lot of people didn’t know there was a town of Hope until there was Hope Elephants.”