Well, if this doesn’t make you tear up, I really don’t know what will. Last week, an elephant named Raju was set free by wildlife conservationists, after being chained up, abused and forced to live off scraps for 50 years. The elderly animal cried when he was set free.
Raju is around 50 years old and was likely captured as a baby and bought and sold many times over the course of his life. He was forced to work as a begging elephant in Allahabad. His legs were bound in spiked chains that made walking difficult and left him with chronic wounds and he was also beaten.
When a group called Wildlife SOS heard about Raju, they set in motion a plan to rescue him from his owner. A team of 10 vets and experts from Wildlife SOS along with 20 Forestry Commission officers and two policemen managed to rescue Raju after a brief standoff with his owner.
“Raju was in chains 24 hours a day, an act of intolerable cruelty. The team were astounded to see tears roll down his face during the rescue. It was incredibly emotional. We knew in our hearts he realized he was being freed. Elephants are majestic and highly intelligent animals. We can only imagine what torture the past half a century has been for him.”
The founder of Wildlife SOS, who was there are the time of the rescue, said the tears really caught him off guard.
“They’ve done a lot of elephant rescues and the fact the the tears were just coming down … he was weeping. It was an emotional moment and everyone was more motivated to get him on the truck and to safety.”
On July 4th Raju took his first steps of freedom. The Wildlife SOS team are doing their best to make him comfortable in his new life and to rehabilitate him by treating his physical wounds and introducing him to other elephants at the center.
Elephants can live up to 70 years so here’s hoping Raju still has a long and happy life still left in him.
(Images and source – Huffpost)
