Elephants have been part of Kerala’s culture, to the extent that they’ve been in the past three decades. Many elephant owners and brokers have commercialized this cultural icon, leasing them out for money, as if they are commodities. Our daunting task is to remind the religious authorities that no religion promotes the exploitation of elephants in cultural and religious festivities. In collaboration with Elephant Care Unchained, VFAES conducted positive reinforcement training at the government’s elephant rehab centers to sensitize the forest department’s elephant handlers and empower them with knowledge and tools to improve the welfare conditions of elephants, as a first step to alleviating their suffering. VFAES’s ultimate goal is to create shackle free lives for elephants, while honoring and revering cultural traditions, which we are accomplishing by introducing robotic elephants to replace live elephants in temples and religious institutions.
Updates
This project was possible because of the volunteer work of Steve Koyle, a renowned positive reinforcement trainer, and elephant foot care specialist. The handlers were keen on phase - 2, and obtaining a certificate, however, COVID prevented us from carrying forward this project in 2020 and 2021. Thanks to our amazingly generous donors who made this possible!
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