One Lucky Elephant at One Lovely Potluck
At the request of those who have attended past film viewings, we held another one in close succession. If you recall, our last film was My Life As A Turkey, the amazing tale of a man who raised a rafter of wild turkeys without any human contact for over a year. This time, we focused on the life of a captive elephant who was raised as one man’s daughter — albeit a working daughter — in One Lucky Elephant. The man used the elephant, Flora, in his circus and realized after her adolescence, that he needed to let her become an elephant among other elephants. This documentary exposes the tragedy that occurs when other animals are used for human entertainment or comfort without knowledge of the emotional and physical needs of the elephant. There are over 600 elephants in North America, and all of them have experienced devastating trauma, physical discomfort and torment, and emotional distress and devastation. We learned that these majestic elephants require about 450 pounds per day of food, and need many, many miles to traverse. They are also herd animals and as such belong with their own herd. But reintroducing an only child into a group of elephants may become challenging and even deadly. Since an elephant I know from the past and her former female caregiver were both in the film, it was doubly meaningful to me.
ARRNT News Updates
The potluck was, as always, a way to taste many new plant-based dishes among good company. We discussed briefly some news for the group:
- We have been invited to participate in a tabling event that is an employee health fair
- We have signed up to be on a site for in-kind donations
- We were awarded a $100 grant and received a $100 donation in exchange for a week of dogsitting
We also need to plan for the following upcoming events:
- An inreach – we will be leaving brochures at selected sites and monitoring which leaflets are being picked up
- The Texas State Veggie Fair in October
- World Vegan Day in November
Ongoing ARRNT Business
We continue to need to promote the group to find people willing to work to educate others about the significance of other animals, and to find ways of receiving financial support.
Our next meeting will be at the Dallas Spiral Diner on July 21st at 2:00 pm. See you there!
Animal Rights & Rescue of North Texas 