An elephant keeper swings a bullhook at one of the elephants.
A close-up of a mark left by a bullhook blow on the forehead of one of the elephants.
This is the entirety of their indoor enclosure.
It's about 420 square feet. Note the concrete floor wet with water and urine, the feces, and the absence of enrichments.
Penny yanks on her front leg-chain as a keeper
attaches her rear leg-chain.
A keeper uses a bullhook (ankus) to lift
Winkie's left-rear leg, so a chain can be attached to her right-rear leg. This photo does not show her cracked and sore
foot-pads. The wet floor you see has been associated with foot and leg problems in elephants.
The elephants' food is left on the floor, the same surface on which they urinate and defecate. The
elephants ate the cardboard boxes they were given the day this was taken, along with the hay. Interestingly,
the day we started the Elephant Education Project, the day after an article about Penny and Winkie appeared
in the local paper, they received buckets of fresh fruits and vegetables instead of cardboard boxes.
