Read about Kristals trip to Africa.


INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE ELEPHANTS
OF KRUGER NATIONAL PARK IN SOUTH AFRICA

Withdraw Your Tourist Travel Plans To South Africa. Go To Kenya Instead!

URGENT: The Officials of KNP Are Planning A Massacre of 5-7,000 Elephants (claiming overpopulation)

I spent a month in S. Africa (May, 2005) working as a volunteer for the conservationists at the Makalali game reserve which is doing pioneer work on elephant contraception. Under the direction of Audrey Delsink (whose work is funded by the Humane Society of the United States), the elys of Makalali have been given contraceptives and it DOES work. But Kruger Park officials refuse to use it on the elys in their park. I also spent 11 hours a day for six days driving around Kruger Park trying to find the elephants who are doing the so called damage that they claim. I found a few bull elys but no female herds. So where are the over populated elephants?

The S. Africans just want to kill elys for their meat, skin and ivory which they are stock piling, just waiting for the moment when the ban on ivory is overturned which they try to do at every CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) meeting. Kruger Park is 6 million acres. That is as large as some countries! They have 12,000 elys. That is 500 acres/ elephant. I do not think they are having a problem with over population!

Also, it is known by those who have studied the behavior of elephants over a long period of time, that elys will monitor their birth rate according to the conditions of their environment. Such a person is Cynthia Moss who has monitored the same herds of elys for almost 40 years in Kenya (where I also visited for a month) and she says: "Elephants will not eat themselves out of house and home".

Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the world's foremost expert on elephants, said this to me: "Any species that over populates to the detriment of other species needs to be curtailed. But I would no more advocate the culling of elephants than I would humans because of who elephants are: sentient, feeling animals..."

S. Africa is still in the stone age and although apartheid was overcome for humans, oppression continues for its animals, especially elephants. Canned hunting is legal and encouraged there. For $50,000.00 you can legally shoot an elephant!
The South African obscene intention to slaughter this glorious and highly evolved animal is outrageous and barbaric and must be stopped.

Withdraw your tourist dollar from South Africa and visit a more enlightened country like Kenya where it is illegal to kill an elephant.

HELP SAVE THE ELEPHANTS
OF
KRUGER NATIONAL PARK:

Write a respectful letter to:
Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk
Private Bag X447
Pretoria, 0001
South Africa
(postage is .84 cents)

BULL ELEPHANT IN KRUGER NATIONAL PARK

FAMILY HERD IN KENYA

 

Love in Action for the Protection and Preservation of Elephants

Kristal's deepest passion is for elephants. Her commitment is to protect them from abuse in the entertainment industry, to stop poaching along with the sell of ivory and to preserve them in the wild.

When the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus was in town, Kristal went on a water only Hunger Strike to bring awareness to the abuse of elephants in the circus industry. Ringling Bros. had 19 performances and Kristal was present, in a cage and in chains, at all of them. See picture and the letter below, written by renown wildlife preservationist, Anthony Marr:

Sept. 22, 2004

Denver to Host the World's First Hunger Strike Devoted to Elephants

Dear Editor:

My name is Anthony Marr. Even though I'm a Canadian living in Vancouver, I'm compelled to write you this media release because I am deeply moved by something momentous soon to occur in Denver, even before it has occurred, and by the amazing Denver woman who will make it happen.

Her name is Kristal Parks. She will undertake a water only hunger strike - in a cage with chains - from the time the Ringling Bros. Circus comes into town until the end of its last performance (12 days). The hunger strike tells of food-deprivation as a training tool, and the cage says volumes about the wild animals' confinement, elephants and tigers alike. The chains are a testimony to the suffering of elephants who are chained much of the time. If Ms. Parks wanted to draw further parallels she would also have to be beaten with a bull hook every so often and poked with an electric cattle prod but even Ms. Parks has her limits! She will be present at each of the 19 performances.

Many people find it hard to believe that elephants are really tortured by circus trainers, but why would anyone voluntarily go days without food just to tell a lie? What Ms. Parks is saying is the truth. Circus animals suffer greatly in order to entertain spectators. Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey circus is "THE SADDEST SHOW ON EARTH”, as her banner will say.

It seems to me that elephant abuse is so sickening that as long as it happens in her city, Ms. Parks can not eat. In her own words, "Elephants cannot speak for themselves. So we must be their voice in as clear and uncompromising fashion as possible. Circuses today are the modern gladiator sport: (hidden) blood and guts for our entertainment. If children knew how the anmals were treated, they would not want to go to the circus".

Anthony Marr
wildlife preservationist

Do you think circus animals are mistreated?
Vote in the Channel 7 (ABC) survey:
http://www.TheDenverChannel.com/news/3784504/detail.html

CIRCUS POSITION STATEMENT

Amboseli Elephant Research Project
P.O. Box 15135
Langata
Nairobi, Kenya

We, the undersigned, form a group of elephant researchers working together to study elephants and promote their conservation and welfare. Our combined experience represents over 200 years of work with free-ranging, wild African elephants. We are the acknowledged experts in the field.

It is our considered opinion that elephants should not be used in circuses. Elephants in the wild roam over large areas and move considerable distances each day. They are intelligent, highly social animals with a complex system of communication. No captive situation can provide elephants with the space they need for movement or with the kind of social stimulation and complexity that they would experience in the wild. To watch an elephant family in the wild is a glorious experience. Led by the oldest female--the matriarch--the family is bonded by kinship, affiliation, experience, great loyalty and affection. Elephants in circuses are confined and chained for hours, are bought and sold, separated from companions, and frequently moved about. In short, they are treated as objects of entertainment for humans.

We believe that such intelligent, socially complex and long-lived animals should be treated with respect and empathy. An elephant's place is in the wild with its relatives and companions. The totally unnatural existence for captive elephants in a circus is a travesty and to allow this practice to continue is unjustified and unethical.

The Amboseli Elephant Research Project

	Elephant Experience
Cynthia Moss, Director	33 years
Sandy J. Andelman	5 years
Harvey Croze	33 years
Iain Douglas-Hamilton	36 years
Phyllis C. Lee	19 years
W. Keith Lindsay	25 years
Hamisi Mutinda	11 years
Joyce H. Poole	26 years
Soila Sayialel	14 years

 

 

 

The biggest threat to elephants is the ivory trade (followed by loss of habitat). When poachers kill an elephant for ivory, they go after the largest elephants: the bulls and the matriarchs. Because elephants live in close knit affectionate family units led by a matriarch, when she is killed, it puts her whole family in tragic confusion, trauma. grief and danger. The killing of the matriarch can destroy the whole family. They need her wisdom to guide them to water holes, feeding areas and to teach them how to survive.

Poachers and ivory traders don't kill the babies who are left orphaned. So what happens to them? They die, end up alone in the wild with no elder to teach them how to survive or they get sold to circuses, zoos or to mahouts. Most elephant trainers (although not all) beat the babies to teach them submission. The "crushing box" in Thailand is widely used and accepted as a way of training by the mahouts.

From Jennifer Hile in National Geographic Today, October 18, 2002:

It's a sound not easily forgotten. Just before dawn in the remote highlands of northern Thailand...a four year old elephant bellows as seven village men stab nails into her ears and feet. She is tied up and immobilized in a small, wooden cage...The cage is called a "training crush". It's the centerpiece of a centuries old ritual in Thailand designed to domesticate young elephants. In addition to beatings, handlers use sleep-deprivation, hunger and thirst to "break" the elephant's spirit and make them submissive to their owners.

Elephants are killed for the ivory to make the carvings as shown below, sold openly in the United States:

 

 

 

As you probably know, the ban on ivory has been lifted in many parts of Africa and elephants are once again being slaughtered in huge numbers. I can not remain safe and silent while this is happening. So I'm going to Africa (Kenya and South Africa) to confront this holocaust head on. I'll be meeting with some of the world's top elephant conservationists and working directly in the wild with els.

I am going by myself and it is dangerous. At times I feel terrified but love beckons and, fortunately, my love for the els exceeds my fear... so off I go on April 4th. I'll be gone for about 2 months.

This trip is expensive and if you'd like to help financially, that'd be great. No pressure, just an invitation.

April 2005 - Photos Kristal sent back from Africa:

Giraffe giving me a kiss:

Baby Elephant - Today I was at the Sheldrick elephant orphanage for the second time interviewing one of the keepers who is said to have a magical touch with the els. They had just rescued a baby. It was still traumatized from loosing its mom and even charged me, but by the time I left, an hour later, it was just smelling me with its trunk. I fell in love with him!!:

 

 

 

From Anthony Marr, wildlife preservationist and tiger expert:

It is my honor, pleasure and priviledge to be asked by Kristal Parks to write this recommendation.

Kristal is among the top three most honest, sincere, courageous, dignified, responsible and dedicated people, of either gender, I have encountered in my 60 years on this Earth.

She has worked as a children's illusionist, yet in reality she is a miracle worker, in the sense that she could create and bestow freedom by the impossible act (to most) of sacrificing her own. A prime example was the 12-day water only hunger-strike for circus elephants in Denver last fall, when Ringlings came to town. This is especially awesome considering that Kristal is slim as a willow and really had no weight to lose. Along the way, amidst her pangs of hunger, some around her suggested that she could "sneak some food". She refused without hesitation. Her honesty was such that even though she was in Denver and I was in Vancouver, I knew that she would never even remotely consider any act of betrayal to her immaculate integrity. No witness was required.

Deeds speak louder than words, but her words, when spoken by her heart, as they always are, could be thunderous without her raising her voice or lowering her almost transcendent femininity. Many in our society believe that power dwells in the muscle; Kristal could demolish that belief without moving a single muscle of her own. To the casual eye she looks soft as water, yet, it is water that carved the Grand Canyon out of solid rock.

In regards to safe guarding the future of elephants, I have never met anyone who is so single-mindedly devoted to these majestic and endangered creatures. Even though I specialize in tiger preservation, and have devoted the greater part of the last decate to the species, I have to admit that the intensity of my passion for the tiger pales beside Kristal's for the elephant. So many times has she expressed to me her great desire, almost need, to work with elephants.

Knowing Kristal the way I do, her life would not be complete without being close to, working with and caring for elephants. Once you have met her, you will agree with me that she is a priceless asset to elephant conservation.

Sincerely,

Anthony Marr
604-222-1169
http://www.HOPE-CARE.org
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org

From Alex Hershaft, founder of FARM and national chairperson for Animal Rights 2005:

Kristal Parks made a moving presentation at our Animal Rights 2004 National Conference. She spoke of how attending the prior year's conference changed her life and turned her from a peace activist into an animal activist.

Kristal has a special affinity for elephants. Earlier this year, she conducted a 12-day hunger strike to publicize the abuse of these animals in circuses. At this year's conference, she plans to address participants on the plight of elephants in the wild.

Kristal impresses me as a very dedicated and committed person, and I truly respect that.

Alex Hershaft
chair@AR2005.org

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The Childrens Entertainer ~ The Activist ~ The Elephant Preservationist ~ The Speaker ~ The Author ~ Home

Kristal Parks
www.KristalParks.com
email: Kristal@KristalParks.com

Copyright ©2003-2006, Kristal Parks