Poachers Leaving Elephant Orphans

60 Minutes: Special Elephant Orphanage Cares For Poachers' Youngest Victims

(CBS)  "How do you manage going through this all the time?" Simon asked.

"Well, you don't have much option, do you? There's another one to look after, and then another one coming, and, you know, you just have to turn the page," Daphne replied.

"And you get attached after one..." Simon commented.

"But I'm not very good at it," she admitted.

"And you're not going to get any better, are you?" Simon asked.

"No, not after 50 years," Daphne replied.

But when she goes out to the other orphans who are doing so well, Daphne did say it brings joy to her life.

It's actually a pretty lush life for these elephants at the orphanage, but it's nothing like a wild elephant. It's not their destiny. So like any good school, this place prepares its students to leave, to get ready for life in the real world, to go back to the wild from whence they came.

Ten years ago, one young female elephant left Daphne's orphanage to go live in the wild. Her name is Mpenzi, and a couple of years ago she became pregnant and decided to go off on her own to give birth, without the protection of her extended family. That was a mistake. Before the sun could set, Mpenzi and her baby were surrounded by a pride of 16 lions.

Keeper Joseph Sauni was called to the scene and captured the events on his still camera. "Mpenzi was standing there, trying to scare off lions with her trunk. But when they came, she tried to push them on this side. Others came from the back. So, she could not do anything," he recalled.

Sauni said Mpenzi didn't have a chance. Asked what was going through his mind while this was happening, he told Simon, "That was so sad. Everybody was crying."

And there was nothing they could do to save the baby. It was a brutal lesson for Mpenzi. Nature has its own laws, and they are a long way from the sheltered world of the orphanage. But this story has a happy ending: just days before 60 Minutes arrived, Mpenzi gave birth to another little girl. The keepers have all come out to cheer her on. They named her A Sante, which in Swahili means, "thank you."

Mpenzi has learned her lesson. This time she makes sure her bundle of joy is surrounded by other members of the family. They help her up when she falls down and rescue her when she tumbles into a mud hole.

So for the moment A Sante will be safe, at least until she grows tusks.

---

So many elephants are being poached for their tusks that in the four months since we broadcast this story, 16 orphaned elephants have arrived at the orphanage. And Dame Daphne is expecting more.

[lunacapra]

It seems to me that radical solutions may be necessary to protect the elephants being slaughtered for their ivory. My suggestion is to have the appropriate foundation find the herds that are at risk, sedate the elephants, remove the ivory tusks and immediately replace them with a manmade orthotic which will maintain the elephant's ability to use the tusks as they would the ivory tusks. With the ivory removed from the equation, the poacher is out of business and the adult elephants can go on with their lives. The acquired ivory can then be sold to support the perpetuation of this and other missions.

the BBC London did a long series on this Orphanage last year showing the day to day life of the Elephants over a year or so. Well worth watching if you can but not good news. Try the BBC iplayer

[mcgh]

I'm 45 y/o and I watch 60minutes but I am getting frustrated with the "old fashion" thinking the show has! People want to help, they just don't know how to help! Help us help the elephants...give us a website...give us a letter on your website to send in opposition to the sale of ivory. Update your show so people can get involved!!! How old are the people running this show???? Get someone in there who can bring the show up to date!!! I'm tired of watching you tell the stories and then leave us with no way to help.
You do all the research on the show, you have to know how we can help...TELL US!!!!

[tuxcats]

Hi, Time and time again I have emailed 60 Minutes and other such news programs to PLEASE include a tag at the end of such pieces to refer people to the website for the organization that they have spotlighted. So many people are not aware of these organizations and once they have watched such a program they are moved so by what is being done to help these animals that they want to help and like last nights program there was no tag saying this is how you can help Dame Daphne help the orphans by mentioning their website.

http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org

I can speak from personal experience. I was lucky enough to visit the orphanage in 2004. I had read about it and made sure when I went on my East African safari to arrange to be taken there to see for myself the wonderful work they do. Anyone can schedule a visit, watch the baby ele's frolick in the mud, bump into you as they walk by, blow into their trunks. It is an amazing place doing such difficult work saving these babies with such loving care. You just want to hug them all and tell them it will be OK with all these wonderful keepers taking care of them as if they were their children.

I now "foster" a baby ele and you can as well. What a wonderful gift it makes for any child or adult with a love for these magnificent creatures. You get monthly orphan updates on how your and other orphaned baby eles are doing. It's better than any soap opera all the antics that go on between the babies and who likes to hang out with who and who causes trouble. It's just like reading about kids at preschool. They have such human like traits. What a great lesson for children to get a foster ele as a gift to be able to read about their foster baby every month. It's one way I keep my African experiences alive by reading about these guys along with the other things I'm connected to there.

Dame Daphne was there when I visited so I personally thanked her for her wonderful work. These ele's are her life. And yes she really does wear the little floral dresses. That was not "dress up" for the cameras :)

60 Minutes----please take note of all the comments asking how they can help and consider giving people this info at the end of segments like these. You can really help make a difference by giving people the info how to help. They are so overwhelmed with babies right now and need every bit of money they can raise. Just think if everyone watching gave a few dollars how much it would help!!!!!!!!

We also need to put pressure on to make the selling of Ivory illegal around the world. We have done so before. I'm not sure how/why it changed.

Every single one of us can make a difference, however small. It takes just one person to raise their voice, and another, and another. Pretty soon it's a massive effort stared from just one voice.

"You must be the change you want to see in the world" -------Mahatma Gandhi-----

Everyone should sponsor a baby ele.......!!!!!!!

[no_nonesense]

I saw this story the first time CBS ran it, and it is worthy of repeating. It's the kind of story involving animals , in the hands of humans, that should be told and retold.

Regardless, it does not mitigate or soften the horrors of your previous week's serving of horrendous animal cruelty by torture and methodical killing of bulls at the hands of Draconian macabre killers who, through tradition, can call themselves "bull fighters." BULL! It's animal torture, pure and simple.

I'm still seething about it, and, like the elephant, I won't forget!

[ShaoNT]

60 Minutes please read this:

I can help! I suggest to show this piece in school all over China and Japan where the ivory is in demand. Children are most innocent and full of sympathy. If they learn how the baby elephans become orphans because their parents and grandparents are paying a high price to buy their ivory, they will help educate their parents and grandparents to stop this demand. In China at least, the "one-child policy" has made the children a very powerful force influencing their parents. When my son was in grade school in China, he learned how the use of paper kills trees and, he refused to write me holiday cards because he wanted to save trees.

To show this piece in school also will make sure that the next generation of Chinese and Japanese will not want to use ivory.

I can help translate the piece into Chinese and make connections to show it in China. So please contact me. Only by exhuasting the deman will we make a difference in stopping the killing of baby elephans.

[ctebben]

What a sad story about the poached elefants. What can we do to get the laws turned aroung re: legal selling of tusks?
How can I help this amazing orphanage?

[ram19491]

www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/ This is a address to find out more about the seldrick trust. Thank you for this wonderful story among so many sad ones. ram19491

[animal-lover]

i am 15, from Wisconson, & i would like to know more about saving these great animals & how to contact this amazing woman.

[Ollind]

60 minutes please let the world know how we can all help to stop this abuse. How can we help?.