Anne the Elephant - Rehabilitation Update
20th June 2011
In the past three months since Anne has been at Longleat we have spent in excess of £50,000 in making sure Anne gets the best possible care at Longleat. This includes vital veterinary and homeopathic care as well as new features and facilities within her house and paddock. We have installed a scratch post, a hayrack for her to feed from while indoors and special weighing scales. In addition to this we are soon going to be adding new features to her outdoor area including water pool, shade cover and extending her paddock so she has a choice of different natural substrates.
As always we will continue to expand and invest in Anne’s care and we are currently in the stages of developing the elephant sanctuary and have already been consulting with experts and welfare bodies to come up with a suitable plan. Over the coming months Longleat will be looking at other sanctuaries across the world to come up with a more detailed plan to house Anne as well as other elephants like her. It is not a quick process setting up a sanctuary and all options need to be considered before we invest, design and build such an important facility so that we meet the needs of the elephants living within it.
Whilst we are in this early rehabilitation process Anne is being assessed and it is felt that is not suitable to introduce any other elephants to Anne at this stage. However this is something we are looking at in the longer term as an essential part of her rehabilitation.
We’re pleased with Anne’s progression here at Longleat during the short period of time she has been here. We must remember though she has a long way to go before we can consider her fully rehabilitated both physically and mentally. Anne’s rehabilitation team consists of four vets – two of which are elephant specialists, an osteopath, reiki healer, animal communicator and Longleat’s team of experienced elephant consultants. On top of this we are working in conjunction with several international animal welfare charities. Here at Longleat we believe it is important to explore every avenue that may benefit Anne’s future.
In the past week Anne has had her Vet come and see her for his regular weekly visit. He was very happy with the progress on her skin and feet.
The cooler wet weather has been a worry to the keepers this week, as we all know a bit of damp weather increases aches and pains... but not for Anne, who on an extremely wet Sunday last week had a great time playing in the rain and didn't really want to come in.