Author: Elke Riesterer

This post is by Elke Riesterer.

Nestled in a beautiful pastoral landscape is Europe’s First Elephant Sanctuary, Elephant Haven. I have been very excited to visit this place knowing many elephants live in captivity in various states of the EU. Practicing body therapy for all species (human and non-human) for over 25 years, my special dedication has been elephants. Confinement to a life in zoos, circuses and other entertainment venues has caused these highly intelligent mammals physical, mental and emotional stress. My work has brought me to countries in Africa and Asia where both species experience substantial harm to their well-being. Thankfully, increased awareness and activism over the years have led to the establishment of Elephant Sanctuaries. Yet, the word “sanctuary” has been often misused, so one needs to carefully look to ensure it refers only to an ethical place – with an absolute dedication to the NEEDS of an elephant and not the desire of people to touch, bath or ride them.

Toni and Sofie are just that kind of people who want to provide the two resident elephants in their care – Gandhi and Delhi – with the very best. Meeting these two elephant ladies was the highlight of my trip to Europe. I followed the Elephant Haven facebook page regularly to familiarize myself with this exciting project of manifesting a peaceful and compassionate place for European elephants to be sent to for retirement. Observing Gandhi for a while next to a big pile of beautiful, elephant-loved dirt while chatting with Sofi warmed me up to the hands-on healing work that I am devoted to share with caretakers wherever I go. Our bodies, human & animals alike, hold memories of neglect, abuse, and torture of any kind in the vast terrain of our emotional, mental and physical being. Body-centered modalities like “TTouch” are wonderful, gentle ways to be calming, building trust, and allows the body to
restore itself on a cellular level. We decided first for Delhi to be introduced to my work. In the spacious barn she received treats of apples, carrots & veggies as I approached the protected barrier. Sensing her personality I asked Toni to position her so that I could touch her. Kindly positioning an elephant is part of husbandry training that all captive elephants go through in order for their body to be inspected of anything concerning health and in particular, for foot care.

Unnatural living conditions can cause often great damage to the toenails and foot pads. As I put both of my hands on Delhi, feeling her wrinkly skin, I was sensing a lack of groundedness. I paused a long moment, before I made soft, mindful circles, inch by inch, toward her tail. It was there near the buttocks she moved slightly away telling me that she was not sure accepting being touched on the area, holding presumably on to some internalized fear. I slowly stepped away and got myself a pole to use as a neutral tool to stroke her at the area. It went momentarily better but she needed more time to learn that I was not going to harm her. I learned from Sofie that where she came from in Asia sadly her tail hair got pulled out to make bracelets. Toni threw her treats again and asked her to turn and put her back foot on the bar so that I could demonstrate the TTouch on this important part of her body. This went very well and Delhi showed me the signs of relaxation that I particularly pay attention to. She started slowing down on eating and then stopped chewing completely, an indication that she was feeling comforting sensations. That is when deeper relaxation takes place, and stimulates the release of the brain chemical Oxytocin, also called love hormone. Mindful touch, positive physical interaction, facilitates wellness in all species and can be a bonding experience.
Elephants are very tactile creatures, as can be seen on the many touching wildlife documentaries that are available in the media. Gandhi was next to be tended to. We went outside next to the barn where a suitable place was provided to introduce myself to her. This elephant lady was easier to approach with Sofie standing next to me feeding her treats while I used gentle TTouches on her face and then her torso. Gandhi was the first resident and therefore has been settling into her new home longer. You can read about the detailed history of both elephants on the sanctuary website. Gandhi was nicely receptive as I kept addressing her body, very sweet. As with many other elephants I wanted to show massaging the tongue and we moved inside the barn for this. I usually like to use a piece of banana for pleasing the tongue through a unique combination of massage highlighted by taste. In my experience, this is much loved by most elephants.

Saying good-bye filled my heart and soul knowing that these elephants are in very good hands and hopefully many more of these magnificent mammals eventually find their way to this sanctuary.

Videos of my interviews with the founders of EHEES — Part 1, Part 2.

Elephant Haven (EHEES) website

In the wild, elephants eat mostly grass, wild fruits, twigs, shrubs, bamboo and a variety of plants. Their main food source is grass when it is available to them. Elephants will also happily eat tree bark, plant roots and even soil. Elephants are herbivores and roughly digest only 50% of their food. Elephants are known to have a sweet tooth and they like sugar cane, bananas and watermelon which are all nutritious. It has been observed that wild elephants
make their way to the dump in search of edibles. Human garbage dumps can provide some suitable food that elephants find pleasing to their palates, for instance fruit and veggie scraps.
See the paper “The elephant at the dump: how does garbage consumption impact Asian elephants?”

A note here on this topic: It is a myth that elephants like peanuts. Hungry elephants raid crops of farmers in Asia and Africa. Human Elephant Conflict (HEC) has become a substantial dilemma. Farmers in India, for instance, make alcohol out of rice and grain which has some times resulted in another problem – drunk elephants. The mammals break in where the alcohol is stored and helping themselves to the dismay of the farming community. HEC has to be dealt with so that the run-ins between the human and non-human species can be hopefully solved.

On the topic of captive elephants’ food consumption, it’s a habit of many people to give handouts to these beautiful giants. As one source told me, bread and biscuits, still wrapped in plastic paper, are some times given. In a zoo in Japan, flowers (perhaps contaminated) have been fed. Two elephants died and others got ill.

Sangita Iyer has recently covered this issue in-depth: What Kind Of Monster Would Feed Meat To An Elephant?

In the good old days, most Hindus did not eat meat, however, things changed after people from India began migrating to western countries. People can eat whatever they want, but the audaciousness of religious institutions to feed meat to a herbivorous animal, that too a cultural icon glorified as the embodiment of Lord Ganesh, is simply intolerable.

The thought of meat given to strictly vegetarian elephants is as crazy as ground up meat particles that has been given to cows who are herbivores like elephants. Where are the boundaries and respect of the nature of the animals’ biology? In addition, I want to point to mahouts drinking alcohol at the Indian temple festivals, and that some elephants purposely have been given alcohol, perhaps to calm a potential musth bull during the loud and elaborate temple festivities. It is known that alcohol addiction is an issue that a number of mahouts harbor. Elephants also suffer when they are given poor quality of nutritious food like lots of palm leaves and not much else and lack of adequate water. In my humble opinion this could cause serious health problems. I personally witnessed cases of intestinal impaction that were deadly. Giving only one or two kinds of food would be considered malnutrition. Many captive elephants get cultivated food that is chemically contaminated, which could compromise their health over time.