COVID-19
Elephant Healthcare & Welfare
Emergency Lifeline Fund
Donations from kind people throughout the world thankfully supported the “Elephant Healthcare and Welfare Emergency Lifeline Fund”— helping ECI and its partners* to provide essential food, medicine, supplies, and hands-on health and welfare care for elephants when and where they needed it—until the COVID-19 crisis had passed and the regional economies had stabilized.
More than 1,000 elephants were helped by our Emergency Fund in Nepal, Thailand, Laos, India, and Myanmar.
Please visit our partner (Work for Wild Life International) to read News from the Field reports about caring for elephants during the Covid pandemic.
*This fundraising initiative was a joint effort of Elephant Care International, Work for Wild Life International and Dr. Janine L. Brown. Funds supporting efforts in Thailand were administered by the Thai registered Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation.
COVID-19 changed everything, including the lives of an estimated 14,000 captive elephants throughout Asia and the people who ensure their well-being. In a perfect world, elephants would not live in captivity and their fate would not depend on tourism. Campaigns like this would not have been needed. But is was.
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With the arrival of the pandemic in early 2020, tourists vanished along with crucial funds to feed and care for elephants. Sadly, malnutrition (and even starvation) was on the horizon. Release to the wild was not an option (and is illegal). A downward spiral toward life-threatening conditions appeared inevitable. Asian elephants needed good nutrition and care more than ever. Elephant veterinarians, mahouts, and other care providers were being laid off as budgets were whittled down to the bare minimum. Wounds, infections, traumatic injuries, and malnutrition went untreated and many elephants suffered, while some died.
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