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We’ve recently been posting stories from some of our caregivers, as they talk about what it’s like to live at the sanctuary and how they approach working with the elephants. Today, we share some notes from Michele, who talks about what makes sanctuary unique.

What makes working at a sanctuary different from other managed care facilities for me? Several aspects are the same. We spend a lot of time cleaning, prepping meals, setting up enclosures, and doing projects that are tangentially related to animal care, like running water lines or painting fences. The list of projects is always longer than the amount of hours in the day, and it’s sometimes hard to choose where to start because they’re all important. 

But what’s different is key. I’ve only worked at Elephant Sanctuary Brazil, so I’ll say what I see here. First, not being open to the public allows us to make decisions about what’s happening with the animals based on the animal’s schedule. We don’t have to do shows, have animals in certain yards at certain times before we open, or do treatments in ten minutes so we can get them back out on exhibit. Flexibility of time might be the biggest gift of all.

Perhaps selfishly, it also doesn’t matter what I look like. I don’t have to be shoveling poop with a smile on my face because people can see me. If my clothes get stained in the course of doing my job (and they always do), I can still wear them the next week. And because of this, I can actually take better care of myself as well. I can dress for comfort and protection from sun and bugs. And this allows me to better focus on the animals. 

I am also not trying to manage both humans and animals at the same time. In places I’ve worked that are open to guests, typically half of my brain could focus on feeding or training an animal, and the other half was answering questions, trying to keep people from touching the animal, touching me, or standing between me and the animal I’m working with. Working in a private facility feels immensely safer for me and the animals both. After experiencing this kind of work, I’m not sure that I could ever go back to a different type of facility – or that I’d want to.

Photo of Rana holding her trunk