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Each barn at the sanctuary has a couple of treatment chutes, which are spaces where elephants stand to receive medical care. They are also how the elephants go in and out of the barn. Sandro will need extensive exams and customized medical assistance, so it’s important that he becomes comfortable standing in this specialized area for short periods of time.

Training won’t only happen in the treatment chutes; we have training walls in the barn and along the fence in certain areas (you will notice sections of the fences with more bars than usual). The advantage of the training chute is being able to access all sides of him all at once, allowing for full body exams. So while some people may question why Sandro is “behind bars,” it is a very small part of his day that will allow for a significant improvement in the level of care that he can be provided. 

In this video, Scott talks about starting to close Sandro in the treatment chute to get him comfortable and begin moving forward with some of his training. As many of you know by now, because of a lack of safe facilities, Sandro’s staff was unable to touch him to provide medical care, foot care, or medical testing. About 10 years ago, Sandro had one caregiver who did footwork on him using free contact, but aside from that, according to both the medical files presented in Sandro’s case and discussions with zoo staff, we believe that this was the only person who cared for Sandro in that way.

Some of Sandro’s medical issues have already been mentioned: his possible lack of teeth, past instances of colic, joint concerns and arthritis, being underweight, lack of muscle, and indications of foot problems. But because we aren’t yet able to examine him properly, there are many unknowns about his health. Since Sandro is a geriatric elephant, it is important that we be able to take blood samples to see the condition of his kidneys, liver, and immune system, among other things. As Sandro has never had any positive reinforcement training, we will have to start from the very beginning with the concept, which can be more complicated with elephants who have a circus past. In that environment, he would have been trained to move away from negative stimuli, while positive reinforcement training will teach him to move towards a positive stimulus. With Sandro’s calm demeanor, we hope he will take to it quickly, but it will still be a long process. Once he has the concept down, we will work on getting him to present different parts of his body, including his feet, so we can visualize the pads of his feet and begin assessing their condition.

Although the priority is to allow him to become comfortable in his surroundings and make sure he is receiving enough food to start putting weight on, we also need to begin this type of care. This entire process has to start with something fairly basic–getting him comfortable with human touch. His staff at the zoo would put food in his trunk, but they did not actually touch him. We are allowing Sandro the space to begin getting to know his new caregivers and trust them, and introducing touch will be the next step, if he seems receptive. Just as it’s not appropriate to just go up to a human stranger and start stroking their arm, it’s not respectful to assume an elephant wants to be touched. Part of trying to make sure Sandro understands that his voice matters and that sanctuary means open, two-way communication, is not forcing things on him until he seems he is ready. It is all a process.