Born free…and wild…to a devoted mother who would sacrifice her life for you, and to others of your kind who would do their utmost to protect you. Free to roam over vast spaces wherever the group took you, learning, feeding, playing, and doing whatever a young elephant is born to do. Suddenly, without any warning, whether gunshot, explosion or electrocution or poison or accident, and it all disappears in brief, confusing, painful moments, and you are alone apart from being surrounded by a noisy throng of beings you had been taught to fear. Mother is now a lifeless or dying heap on the ground; protective siblings, aunts, and cousins have disappeared, either in terror or hopelessness; today has become a living nightmare. What? Why? Who? Where? What was once filled with the promise of future has suddenly come to an end. Welcome to the suffering of an elephant orphan.
