August 10, 2023 • 21 mins
Maria chats with S4EGlobal President and Board Member Robyn Beasley. Originally Stews 4 Elephants, Robyn founded the organization with fellow flight attendants to raise awareness about the ethical treatment of animals, especially elephants. As their website states "If an animal doesn't do it in the wild, don't pay to see the animal do it in captivity."
Listen to the interview and learn how you can help (we all can!) at S4EGlobal.org.
World Elephant Day is Saturday August 12th!
And S4EGlobal is holding a fundraiser on Thurs Sept 14th at The Cutting Room in NYC.
Listen to the interview and learn how you can help (we all can!) at S4EGlobal.org.
World Elephant Day is Saturday August 12th!
And S4EGlobal is holding a fundraiser on Thurs Sept 14th at The Cutting Room in NYC.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
It's Maria's MutS and Stuff. Whata great idea on I ART Radio.
Welcome to Maria's MutS and Stuff.I'm very excited because with me is Robin
Beasley, who is the president andboard member of S four E Global,
which was Stews for Elephants. SoI want to hear all about the organization.
(00:25):
So welcome Robin. Thank you fortaking some time out. Thank you
so very much reaching out. Iappreciate it, oh absolutely so. So
tell me how did your organization,obviously looking Out for Elephants started as Stews
for Elephants? How did that begin? We did start out at Stews for
(00:49):
Elephants. We a few years ago. I was traveling in Southeast Asia and
I knew I wanted to see anelephant, and I wanted to see it
ethically because in the past, wheneverI'd seen elephants and you know, unfortunately
interacted with him in not the properway. So I was determined I wanted
to do it ethically this time.So when I was traveling, I kept
(01:11):
seeing Elephant Nature Park. It keptbeing popping up as it's very ethical and
more I read about like Challer,the more intrigued I began I became,
So I ended up going there fora day visit. And once I went
for the day visit, I camehome signed up immediately to go sign volunteer
for a week, and of course, social media being social media, after
(01:32):
I posted pictures, everybody wanted tocome with me. Everybody because I'm a
flight attendant, and everybody be like, next time you go, I want
to go with you. Well,one night on the layover in London,
about three pints in it sounded likea great idea. I love it.
So we got a group together thatnight and kind of group from there.
(01:57):
Wow and yeah, so tell mehow it's like. Okay, so you
had your group and it was agroup of like fellow workers, co workers,
flight attendant group, fifty fifty fiveflight attendants and their friends. I
contacted Elephant Nature Park and they werevery willing to let our group come and
we were kind. We were oneof the largest groups they ever had.
(02:19):
And my original thought was, oh, we might be lucky if we get
ten people right right. And thenext thing I know, we've got all
the spots filled for that week andwe have fifty five people that showed up
with us that week. Wow,And we just keep growing and growing.
The next time we went, wehad almost a hundred WOW. And then
of course COVID happened, right,and so we're getting back on track now
(02:42):
to start doing it again. Wehave another holiday going in this coming February.
They'll be sixty of us WOW.And we've been able to donate,
raise money and donate for them,and we've actually expanded since then. We've
gone to Brazil for a global sanctuaryfor elephants and volunteer here there. We
just went in April and volunteered inFrance at Elephant Haven in the southern part
(03:07):
of France. And we just keepgrowing. And it's beyond anything I ever
thought, and anything beyond my imagination. I'm sure. I mean, it's
probably of course, it's so rewarding, but it's also uh, it's it's
I don't know, I mean,even like like you said, it came
out of being a few pints inbut the fact that it's growing so much
(03:27):
and you're you know, you're makingsuch a difference, you know, and
you're helping elephants. I mean,so you just you randomly choose places to
go that around the world. Isthat correct? No, we don't really
randomly. We do our research andwe will we want to make sure wherever
we go treat the animals ethically,okay, and we were not going to
go anywhere and volunteer that does changethat change their elephants, bullhoogs or anything
(03:53):
that's considered abusive. Right. Andthe projects, the projects that we remote
and back, we've all checked outand they all there are projects that have
brought animals in from abusive situations.The elephant nature part, they have a
little over one hundred elephants right nowthat have all come from horrific conditions and
(04:15):
you can see the scars still onthem. A lot of them still have
mental scars and you can still seethe physical scars right right. And so
we that is our place in Thailandbecause we know that all the animals are
treated the way that they should betreated. And the place in Brazil,
a lot of the countries in SouthAmerica have banned wild animals and circuses,
(04:41):
so as a result, some ofthese animals had no place to go,
and so Global Sanctuary for Elephants inBrazil was created. And so that's also
a true sanctuary and refuge for elephants, and so they treat their animals,
their elephants magnificently, right, andso that's one of our projects, and
the same for Elephant Haven. Thesethey got two elephants right now. They're
(05:06):
young sanctuary and they're hopefully going toget more elephants soon. And both of
their elephants have come from zoos andreading programs and that sort of thing,
so we're looking forward to seeing themgrow, right. And a lot of
people don't realize there's a sanctuary inFrance, right Yeah. Yeah, I
(05:26):
didn't even realize that, you know, like I know there were sanctuaries like
in Africa and stuff that you seelike on nat GEO, but I didn't
realize there was one in France,you know, I had no idea.
Yeah, it's an amazing place.It really is a little young couples and
they're they cannot be any sweeter ormore. Everything they do is for the
(05:46):
elephants, wow, which is whatall of our projects have. Everything is
for the elephant huh huh. Andwhen you go traveling to these different places,
obviously it's volunteer. Do you whatdo you do there? Like when
you get there, what do youdo? Elephant Nature Park has a volunteer
program set up so when we're notwell during our week, we have all
(06:12):
of the volunteer spots. But whenwe're there, we scoop who we unflow
trucks, we do part clean up, we clear out during the dry season,
we clear out the fire breaks we'veyou know, we go to a
neighboring camp that Leck is trying tomake or trying to get them to treat
(06:32):
their animals more ethically and help themout, because if we don't help them
out, the elephants are the onesthat suffer, of course, So so
we try to go there and showthem that they can make money from treating
their elephants ethically. Right, Andit's and it's educational too because you actually
get to see the you can kindof have an idea of the underside of
(06:53):
what happens whenever the tourists gets home. Sure. Sure, So you know
for the listeners who because you Ithe word you keep using and of course
is ethically. For the listeners whodon't understand the difference, let's explain what
that means. When you say totreat the elephants ethically. To treat the
(07:15):
elephants ethically means that there's positive reinforcementnot negative reinforcement. So instead of punishing
an elephant for not paying attention,you give it fruit to get it to
walk with you. No bullhooks,no chains, because they can't be shackled
there into their instinct is to walkright. So when they're shackled, it's
(07:36):
very distressing to them to not hitthem, to not use knives. To
train the elephant is it's kyled thepajan. And they take a baby elephant
from its mom when it's about twoyears old, and so just kind of
know that, like an elephant's lifespan is kind of I'm miscomparable to a
(07:58):
human. So like you're all,elephant is like a baby toddle us.
Yes, yes, it's the baby. So they take it away from its
mom. The baby will never seeits mom again. And then they train
it and they train it by negativereinforcement for twenty four hours a day.
They stab it, beat it,sleep to private star of it, you
(08:18):
name it. Whatever it takes tobreak the spirit. And once they're able
to break the spirit, then you'reable to ride it. They'll perform and
they train them for the circuses.Every every trained elephant, almost every trained
elephant you see has been has gonethrough some form of the basin, and
so we do not advocate anything thatwhere animals perform the painting. Like a
(08:45):
lot of people think it's too tohave an elephant paint who do not advocate
for that, because that is alsoa form of cruelty. Riding as big
as an elephant is, their backsreally aren't made for riding. Their backbones
are spiny, and especially when youuse the saddle, it's it hurts them.
Of course, anything like that,anything that forces an elephant to do
(09:09):
something that it doesn't want to dois not ethical, right, okay,
And we and we try to avoidwe we we promote trying to see animals
ethically. No, I mean,it's it's it's something that I think.
I think more and more people atthis point twenty twenty three are finally realizing,
(09:31):
and probably from stuff that we grewup with, especially if you know
older, the older ones amongst uslike me. You know, you grew
up and you know anything about thiswhen you went to the circus and is
as you got older, right,like, we didn't realize you know,
oh, look at that elephant standingon one leg. That's amazing. No,
(09:52):
it's not amazing. It's awful.It's torture, you know, like
yeah, and you know as children. It's now thinking back, it's kind
of melancholy to think about it.It's a bittersweet because you think of all
the good times you had, butthen you realize you had them at the
expense of it an animal exactly.That's yeah, Oh my god, you're
in my head. I was justgoing to say that at the expense of
(10:13):
the animal. We didn't think that. Like our parents, if they realize
that, probably wouldn't have taken us. No, And I truly believe that
when most people know what it takestrying the animal and get to the circus,
once they realize that they don't,they don't want to be a part
of it exactly. And the thingis just educating and that's where that's what
our group is trying to do,is educate people that you may love an
(10:35):
animal, but when you see itas a tourist, it may not be
treated well. And so think beforeyou interact with a wild animal as a
tourist or as anything. Sure,you know, don't go to circus,
don't write an elephant, don't swimwith dolphins. I mean, the risk
goes on about how many animals thatwe love and want to be close to,
(10:56):
but our actions can sometimes lead tocruelty. Correct, that's right,
No, you're right. I mean, don't buy anything that's made of ivory,
right, because that's the worst.It's another thing. Yeah, yeah,
no, I mean, I justI was so thrilled to come across
your organization and I'm like, ohmy goodness, I have to talk to
you because it's it's just it's soupsetting, and I think, you know,
(11:18):
I think people are getting more arebecoming more and more aware of all
of the things that you said,you know, treating animals ethically. But
I think it's just I wish you'reright. It's melancholy because I wish that
we knew about this from a longtime ago. You know, it's like
better late than never, But Ijust wish, well, I know it's
(11:41):
silly to think back and be andsaid like like, it's better to just
think forward, you know, likewhat we could do. You know,
we you can't blame someone for whatthey don't know. Correct. Ignorance is
bliss, is the old saying,Right, Yeah, it is list but
it's you know, you also needto educate yourself that you can't blame someone
(12:03):
when they don't know the people thatknow better. That right, that's really
Oh no, no, you're right, you're right, that's true. Especially,
I mean with elephants, so manythings that you I've learned over the
years. I'm sure you know thatthat there are social animals and when you
go you know, zoos that wouldhave like a single elephant by itself,
(12:24):
like that's torturous that would be there. They're like us, like humans,
we're social animals too. So absolutely, yeah, I mean I think about
Happy and the Bronx Happy and Patties. Yeah, and you know, I
know that one of the non humanrights projects they they're really fighting hard to
get Happy to sanctuary. And thankgoodness that there are sanctuaries that will take
(12:46):
elephants and treat them well. Andhopefully, I mean there's so many.
Hopefully one day the BRONXO will letthese two elephants go and become they let
them retire from different pct servitude.Yes, and I think and correct me
if I'm wrong in this. Ithought I read something and it was a
(13:07):
while back that said, moving forward, they're not going to have elephants anymore.
Is that correct? That is myunderstanding, and that's what I remember
reading. These two elephants are gone. They won't do any more elephants.
But but it's in the meantime,definitely, they're just stubbornly hanging on to
these two elephants who were captured fromthe wild. Yeah, which they should
were taken from their family, right, yeah, right, No, you're
(13:28):
right, you're right, especially thefact that there are sanctuaries that want to
take them, you know, likelet let them go. It's it's really
and with the Bronx Zoo because theyyou know, they're they're the what the
wildlife conservation society, so you wouldthink that it would make sense to them,
and I'm sure it does make senseto them. So I'm a little
(13:48):
baffled by that. You know,it all comes down the money, unfundunately,
and I'm sure I'm sure they arethey are afraid of what they think
the backlash would be. But actuallythe backlash would be. How wonderful was
it then of them that they letthese animals go to sanctuary, agreed,
(14:09):
instead of instead of letting them diein themselves in misery, correct, right,
yeah, yeah, yeah, no, you're absolutely You're absolutely correct.
On that. So for the listenerswho are very intrigued with you and your
organization, what can they do tohelp? I know you you also survive.
(14:31):
You know you're a non profit.So they can give donations. Correct,
absolutely, they can give donations.They can go on our website and
give donations. We have several elephantprojects, okay. We've got one in
Thailand, the one in Brazil,the one in France. We have a
project in India that works with elephantsin human conflict and trying to alleviate that.
(14:52):
And we have one in South Africacalled Tula Tula okay, and that's
a South African conservation fund, andthey've got an amaz amazing herd of elephants
that were made famous in the booksThe Elephant Whisper. And their biggest their
elephants are wild, which is abeautiful thing, and their biggest thing is
poaching. They they need donations foranti poaching and for security for the elephants
(15:20):
and the rhinos that they have onproperty. Right So we're trying to raise
money for them for to keep theseelephants and rhinos alive. Uh huh Okay,
So your and your website is sthe number four e global dot org.
That's correct. Okay, So donationsare definitely probably the number one thing
that people can do if they wantto help. But I know what,
(15:43):
tell me some dues. I knowwe talked about don'ts, but tell me
some other dues that people can do. Well. Do you do research and
before you interact with an animal,ask yourself why is it possible? Make
sure make sure that you're visiting somewhereethically. Do the biggest thing is to
(16:04):
do research because if people do researchand don't go to the places that abuse
the elephants, change is going tohappen that way. And the biggest,
the biggest thing that we can useto change what is going on is our
tourist money. If we don't spendmoney at these projects that don't treat animals
well, they don't make money andthey'll be forced to change sure. And
(16:27):
so that's the biggest thing is justeducate yourself. And you know, there's
so many different ways that you candouble check something. Besides our website and
besides following us on social media,you can check. You can just pretty
much google it is writing an elephantethically, one hundred articles will come up.
Is petting a tiger ethical, onehundred more articles will come up,
(16:51):
and just do research and somewhere you'regoing to find the answers right, and
just don't believe the first thing youread, well, that's true. It's
true when you're looking at the pictureswhen they're with of elephant, places that
you may want to visit. Seeif they're holding your bullhook, see if
they're writing, see if their elephantsare performing. But education is really the
(17:15):
biggest thing. And once you findsomewhere that's good, spread the word and
let people know that that's a placeto visit. Trip Advisor, you know,
Google, do reviews of this isethical right, and if you see
something that's not ethical, also writeit up. There's numbers that you can
call, like I know in Thailand, there's a number you can call that
(17:38):
if you are seeing an animal beingabused, you can call that number and
you know, mark down where itis. You may not be able to
do anything yourself that you can getin touch with someone who can right right
now. These are these are great. These are all great tips because I
know you know someone who's listening tothis and they're like, I want to
do something. So these are alland these are all very simple things that
(18:00):
we can all do. And that'ssomething that usually when people they when they
kind of have a hesitation, theirguts tell them, probably isn't okay.
Listen to your inside. That's yourinside will tell you, because we try
to overthink things and we end upmaybe overthinking too much and doing things we
(18:21):
know that are not right. Butwhen we listen to our inside at first,
instinct is what we need to belistening to. That's truect on that
you're absolutely right. And I thinkfor anyone who is currently listening to this,
they know better and they will trusttheir instinct, you know, and
they're being Yeah, And Elephant Dayis coming up on the twelfth of August,
(18:47):
and our fundraiser is September fourteenth.Come to our fundraiser. Yes,
that's right. Let's talk about yourfundraiser that is in New York City at
the cutting room, and what thefor the people who are listening who are
in like the Tri state area.You can come into New York City,
into Manhattan to the cutting room.And you said that's September fourteenth, and
(19:07):
what will happen at the fundraiser onSeptember fourteenth is from six to nine.
We've got the first hour will bea cocktail hour. We a little meet
and greet. We've got a bandthat starts at seven, but there's a
three course dinner, open bar,live music. We'll also have some videos
(19:29):
from our different projects, so youcan get to meet the different projects and
know what it is that we support. We've got auctions coming up. We've
got a lot of silent options,and we'll have a couple of live auctions,
and being flight attendants, we've forsome of our auctions. I've got
big food and wine baskets from ourdestinations. Oh night, So get to
(19:52):
live a little bit of life ofa flight attendant and what we did to
bring home on layovers. Wow,that's so funny. Now are you still
a slight attendant? Are you stillworking? I am. I'm actually headed
to Rome tonight. Oh my goodness, I don't know how you do at
all. That's amazing. You're amazing, Robin. Oh well, thank you.
You know, but as Slight attendance, we have the perfect opportunity to
(20:14):
educate people right and we taught thepeople and you know, so many people
want to know and want to dothe right thing. So my job has
come in very well, and I'mvery blessed and very fortunate that I've gotten
to do this for so long.Sure, well, we hope and I
hope that you keep doing what you'redoing because you're amazing and we need more
(20:36):
people in the world like you andyou're friends. Thank you, you're very
kind. Well, it's true.Thank you, it's very true. So
thank you so much. And again, if you'd like to help out,
you can go to S four eglobaldot org and the website will show you
how you can donate. It canshow you what you can do other than
donate if you need to, ifyou want to volunteer. There were so
(20:57):
many different things, like Robin said, but you can read it all about
it at S four E global dotorg, followed them on social and keep
spreading the word and Robin, keepfighting the good fight and doing all that
you do because you really are veryspecial. So much, Maria, I
appreciate I appreciate you reaching out,and I appreciate you given us time for
this. Absolutely operator and just Seator
It's Maria's MutS and Stuff. Whata great idea on I ART Radio.
Welcome to Maria's MutS and Stuff.I'm very excited because with me is Robin
Beasley, who is the president andboard member of S four E Global,
which was Stews for Elephants. SoI want to hear all about the organization.
(00:25):
So welcome Robin. Thank you fortaking some time out. Thank you
so very much reaching out. Iappreciate it, oh absolutely so. So
tell me how did your organization,obviously looking Out for Elephants started as Stews
for Elephants? How did that begin? We did start out at Stews for
(00:49):
Elephants. We a few years ago. I was traveling in Southeast Asia and
I knew I wanted to see anelephant, and I wanted to see it
ethically because in the past, wheneverI'd seen elephants and you know, unfortunately
interacted with him in not the properway. So I was determined I wanted
to do it ethically this time.So when I was traveling, I kept
(01:11):
seeing Elephant Nature Park. It keptbeing popping up as it's very ethical and
more I read about like Challer,the more intrigued I began I became,
So I ended up going there fora day visit. And once I went
for the day visit, I camehome signed up immediately to go sign volunteer
for a week, and of course, social media being social media, after
(01:32):
I posted pictures, everybody wanted tocome with me. Everybody because I'm a
flight attendant, and everybody be like, next time you go, I want
to go with you. Well,one night on the layover in London,
about three pints in it sounded likea great idea. I love it.
So we got a group together thatnight and kind of group from there.
(01:57):
Wow and yeah, so tell mehow it's like. Okay, so you
had your group and it was agroup of like fellow workers, co workers,
flight attendant group, fifty fifty fiveflight attendants and their friends. I
contacted Elephant Nature Park and they werevery willing to let our group come and
we were kind. We were oneof the largest groups they ever had.
(02:19):
And my original thought was, oh, we might be lucky if we get
ten people right right. And thenext thing I know, we've got all
the spots filled for that week andwe have fifty five people that showed up
with us that week. Wow,And we just keep growing and growing.
The next time we went, wehad almost a hundred WOW. And then
of course COVID happened, right,and so we're getting back on track now
(02:42):
to start doing it again. Wehave another holiday going in this coming February.
They'll be sixty of us WOW.And we've been able to donate,
raise money and donate for them,and we've actually expanded since then. We've
gone to Brazil for a global sanctuaryfor elephants and volunteer here there. We
just went in April and volunteered inFrance at Elephant Haven in the southern part
(03:07):
of France. And we just keepgrowing. And it's beyond anything I ever
thought, and anything beyond my imagination. I'm sure. I mean, it's
probably of course, it's so rewarding, but it's also uh, it's it's
I don't know, I mean,even like like you said, it came
out of being a few pints inbut the fact that it's growing so much
(03:27):
and you're you know, you're makingsuch a difference, you know, and
you're helping elephants. I mean,so you just you randomly choose places to
go that around the world. Isthat correct? No, we don't really
randomly. We do our research andwe will we want to make sure wherever
we go treat the animals ethically,okay, and we were not going to
go anywhere and volunteer that does changethat change their elephants, bullhoogs or anything
(03:53):
that's considered abusive. Right. Andthe projects, the projects that we remote
and back, we've all checked outand they all there are projects that have
brought animals in from abusive situations.The elephant nature part, they have a
little over one hundred elephants right nowthat have all come from horrific conditions and
(04:15):
you can see the scars still onthem. A lot of them still have
mental scars and you can still seethe physical scars right right. And so
we that is our place in Thailandbecause we know that all the animals are
treated the way that they should betreated. And the place in Brazil,
a lot of the countries in SouthAmerica have banned wild animals and circuses,
(04:41):
so as a result, some ofthese animals had no place to go,
and so Global Sanctuary for Elephants inBrazil was created. And so that's also
a true sanctuary and refuge for elephants, and so they treat their animals,
their elephants magnificently, right, andso that's one of our projects, and
the same for Elephant Haven. Thesethey got two elephants right now. They're
(05:06):
young sanctuary and they're hopefully going toget more elephants soon. And both of
their elephants have come from zoos andreading programs and that sort of thing,
so we're looking forward to seeing themgrow, right. And a lot of
people don't realize there's a sanctuary inFrance, right Yeah. Yeah, I
(05:26):
didn't even realize that, you know, like I know there were sanctuaries like
in Africa and stuff that you seelike on nat GEO, but I didn't
realize there was one in France,you know, I had no idea.
Yeah, it's an amazing place.It really is a little young couples and
they're they cannot be any sweeter ormore. Everything they do is for the
(05:46):
elephants, wow, which is whatall of our projects have. Everything is
for the elephant huh huh. Andwhen you go traveling to these different places,
obviously it's volunteer. Do you whatdo you do there? Like when
you get there, what do youdo? Elephant Nature Park has a volunteer
program set up so when we're notwell during our week, we have all
(06:12):
of the volunteer spots. But whenwe're there, we scoop who we unflow
trucks, we do part clean up, we clear out during the dry season,
we clear out the fire breaks we'veyou know, we go to a
neighboring camp that Leck is trying tomake or trying to get them to treat
(06:32):
their animals more ethically and help themout, because if we don't help them
out, the elephants are the onesthat suffer, of course, So so
we try to go there and showthem that they can make money from treating
their elephants ethically. Right, Andit's and it's educational too because you actually
get to see the you can kindof have an idea of the underside of
(06:53):
what happens whenever the tourists gets home. Sure. Sure, So you know
for the listeners who because you Ithe word you keep using and of course
is ethically. For the listeners whodon't understand the difference, let's explain what
that means. When you say totreat the elephants ethically. To treat the
(07:15):
elephants ethically means that there's positive reinforcementnot negative reinforcement. So instead of punishing
an elephant for not paying attention,you give it fruit to get it to
walk with you. No bullhooks,no chains, because they can't be shackled
there into their instinct is to walkright. So when they're shackled, it's
(07:36):
very distressing to them to not hitthem, to not use knives. To
train the elephant is it's kyled thepajan. And they take a baby elephant
from its mom when it's about twoyears old, and so just kind of
know that, like an elephant's lifespan is kind of I'm miscomparable to a
(07:58):
human. So like you're all,elephant is like a baby toddle us.
Yes, yes, it's the baby. So they take it away from its
mom. The baby will never seeits mom again. And then they train
it and they train it by negativereinforcement for twenty four hours a day.
They stab it, beat it,sleep to private star of it, you
(08:18):
name it. Whatever it takes tobreak the spirit. And once they're able
to break the spirit, then you'reable to ride it. They'll perform and
they train them for the circuses.Every every trained elephant, almost every trained
elephant you see has been has gonethrough some form of the basin, and
so we do not advocate anything thatwhere animals perform the painting. Like a
(08:45):
lot of people think it's too tohave an elephant paint who do not advocate
for that, because that is alsoa form of cruelty. Riding as big
as an elephant is, their backsreally aren't made for riding. Their backbones
are spiny, and especially when youuse the saddle, it's it hurts them.
Of course, anything like that,anything that forces an elephant to do
(09:09):
something that it doesn't want to dois not ethical, right, okay,
And we and we try to avoidwe we we promote trying to see animals
ethically. No, I mean,it's it's it's something that I think.
I think more and more people atthis point twenty twenty three are finally realizing,
(09:31):
and probably from stuff that we grewup with, especially if you know
older, the older ones amongst uslike me. You know, you grew
up and you know anything about thiswhen you went to the circus and is
as you got older, right,like, we didn't realize you know,
oh, look at that elephant standingon one leg. That's amazing. No,
(09:52):
it's not amazing. It's awful.It's torture, you know, like
yeah, and you know as children. It's now thinking back, it's kind
of melancholy to think about it.It's a bittersweet because you think of all
the good times you had, butthen you realize you had them at the
expense of it an animal exactly.That's yeah, Oh my god, you're
in my head. I was justgoing to say that at the expense of
(10:13):
the animal. We didn't think that. Like our parents, if they realize
that, probably wouldn't have taken us. No, And I truly believe that
when most people know what it takestrying the animal and get to the circus,
once they realize that they don't,they don't want to be a part
of it exactly. And the thingis just educating and that's where that's what
our group is trying to do,is educate people that you may love an
(10:35):
animal, but when you see itas a tourist, it may not be
treated well. And so think beforeyou interact with a wild animal as a
tourist or as anything. Sure,you know, don't go to circus,
don't write an elephant, don't swimwith dolphins. I mean, the risk
goes on about how many animals thatwe love and want to be close to,
(10:56):
but our actions can sometimes lead tocruelty. Correct, that's right,
No, you're right. I mean, don't buy anything that's made of ivory,
right, because that's the worst.It's another thing. Yeah, yeah,
no, I mean, I justI was so thrilled to come across
your organization and I'm like, ohmy goodness, I have to talk to
you because it's it's just it's soupsetting, and I think, you know,
(11:18):
I think people are getting more arebecoming more and more aware of all
of the things that you said,you know, treating animals ethically. But
I think it's just I wish you'reright. It's melancholy because I wish that
we knew about this from a longtime ago. You know, it's like
better late than never, But Ijust wish, well, I know it's
(11:41):
silly to think back and be andsaid like like, it's better to just
think forward, you know, likewhat we could do. You know,
we you can't blame someone for whatthey don't know. Correct. Ignorance is
bliss, is the old saying,Right, Yeah, it is list but
it's you know, you also needto educate yourself that you can't blame someone
(12:03):
when they don't know the people thatknow better. That right, that's really
Oh no, no, you're right, you're right, that's true. Especially,
I mean with elephants, so manythings that you I've learned over the
years. I'm sure you know thatthat there are social animals and when you
go you know, zoos that wouldhave like a single elephant by itself,
(12:24):
like that's torturous that would be there. They're like us, like humans,
we're social animals too. So absolutely, yeah, I mean I think about
Happy and the Bronx Happy and Patties. Yeah, and you know, I
know that one of the non humanrights projects they they're really fighting hard to
get Happy to sanctuary. And thankgoodness that there are sanctuaries that will take
(12:46):
elephants and treat them well. Andhopefully, I mean there's so many.
Hopefully one day the BRONXO will letthese two elephants go and become they let
them retire from different pct servitude.Yes, and I think and correct me
if I'm wrong in this. Ithought I read something and it was a
(13:07):
while back that said, moving forward, they're not going to have elephants anymore.
Is that correct? That is myunderstanding, and that's what I remember
reading. These two elephants are gone. They won't do any more elephants.
But but it's in the meantime,definitely, they're just stubbornly hanging on to
these two elephants who were captured fromthe wild. Yeah, which they should
were taken from their family, right, yeah, right, No, you're
(13:28):
right, you're right, especially thefact that there are sanctuaries that want to
take them, you know, likelet let them go. It's it's really
and with the Bronx Zoo because theyyou know, they're they're the what the
wildlife conservation society, so you wouldthink that it would make sense to them,
and I'm sure it does make senseto them. So I'm a little
(13:48):
baffled by that. You know,it all comes down the money, unfundunately,
and I'm sure I'm sure they arethey are afraid of what they think
the backlash would be. But actuallythe backlash would be. How wonderful was
it then of them that they letthese animals go to sanctuary, agreed,
(14:09):
instead of instead of letting them diein themselves in misery, correct, right,
yeah, yeah, yeah, no, you're absolutely You're absolutely correct.
On that. So for the listenerswho are very intrigued with you and your
organization, what can they do tohelp? I know you you also survive.
(14:31):
You know you're a non profit.So they can give donations. Correct,
absolutely, they can give donations.They can go on our website and
give donations. We have several elephantprojects, okay. We've got one in
Thailand, the one in Brazil,the one in France. We have a
project in India that works with elephantsin human conflict and trying to alleviate that.
(14:52):
And we have one in South Africacalled Tula Tula okay, and that's
a South African conservation fund, andthey've got an amaz amazing herd of elephants
that were made famous in the booksThe Elephant Whisper. And their biggest their
elephants are wild, which is abeautiful thing, and their biggest thing is
poaching. They they need donations foranti poaching and for security for the elephants
(15:20):
and the rhinos that they have onproperty. Right So we're trying to raise
money for them for to keep theseelephants and rhinos alive. Uh huh Okay,
So your and your website is sthe number four e global dot org.
That's correct. Okay, So donationsare definitely probably the number one thing
that people can do if they wantto help. But I know what,
(15:43):
tell me some dues. I knowwe talked about don'ts, but tell me
some other dues that people can do. Well. Do you do research and
before you interact with an animal,ask yourself why is it possible? Make
sure make sure that you're visiting somewhereethically. Do the biggest thing is to
(16:04):
do research because if people do researchand don't go to the places that abuse
the elephants, change is going tohappen that way. And the biggest,
the biggest thing that we can useto change what is going on is our
tourist money. If we don't spendmoney at these projects that don't treat animals
well, they don't make money andthey'll be forced to change sure. And
(16:27):
so that's the biggest thing is justeducate yourself. And you know, there's
so many different ways that you candouble check something. Besides our website and
besides following us on social media,you can check. You can just pretty
much google it is writing an elephantethically, one hundred articles will come up.
Is petting a tiger ethical, onehundred more articles will come up,
(16:51):
and just do research and somewhere you'regoing to find the answers right, and
just don't believe the first thing youread, well, that's true. It's
true when you're looking at the pictureswhen they're with of elephant, places that
you may want to visit. Seeif they're holding your bullhook, see if
they're writing, see if their elephantsare performing. But education is really the
(17:15):
biggest thing. And once you findsomewhere that's good, spread the word and
let people know that that's a placeto visit. Trip Advisor, you know,
Google, do reviews of this isethical right, and if you see
something that's not ethical, also writeit up. There's numbers that you can
call, like I know in Thailand, there's a number you can call that
(17:38):
if you are seeing an animal beingabused, you can call that number and
you know, mark down where itis. You may not be able to
do anything yourself that you can getin touch with someone who can right right
now. These are these are great. These are all great tips because I
know you know someone who's listening tothis and they're like, I want to
do something. So these are alland these are all very simple things that
(18:00):
we can all do. And that'ssomething that usually when people they when they
kind of have a hesitation, theirguts tell them, probably isn't okay.
Listen to your inside. That's yourinside will tell you, because we try
to overthink things and we end upmaybe overthinking too much and doing things we
(18:21):
know that are not right. Butwhen we listen to our inside at first,
instinct is what we need to belistening to. That's truect on that
you're absolutely right. And I thinkfor anyone who is currently listening to this,
they know better and they will trusttheir instinct, you know, and
they're being Yeah, And Elephant Dayis coming up on the twelfth of August,
(18:47):
and our fundraiser is September fourteenth.Come to our fundraiser. Yes,
that's right. Let's talk about yourfundraiser that is in New York City at
the cutting room, and what thefor the people who are listening who are
in like the Tri state area.You can come into New York City,
into Manhattan to the cutting room.And you said that's September fourteenth, and
(19:07):
what will happen at the fundraiser onSeptember fourteenth is from six to nine.
We've got the first hour will bea cocktail hour. We a little meet
and greet. We've got a bandthat starts at seven, but there's a
three course dinner, open bar,live music. We'll also have some videos
(19:29):
from our different projects, so youcan get to meet the different projects and
know what it is that we support. We've got auctions coming up. We've
got a lot of silent options,and we'll have a couple of live auctions,
and being flight attendants, we've forsome of our auctions. I've got
big food and wine baskets from ourdestinations. Oh night, So get to
(19:52):
live a little bit of life ofa flight attendant and what we did to
bring home on layovers. Wow,that's so funny. Now are you still
a slight attendant? Are you stillworking? I am. I'm actually headed
to Rome tonight. Oh my goodness, I don't know how you do at
all. That's amazing. You're amazing, Robin. Oh well, thank you.
You know, but as Slight attendance, we have the perfect opportunity to
(20:14):
educate people right and we taught thepeople and you know, so many people
want to know and want to dothe right thing. So my job has
come in very well, and I'mvery blessed and very fortunate that I've gotten
to do this for so long.Sure, well, we hope and I
hope that you keep doing what you'redoing because you're amazing and we need more
(20:36):
people in the world like you andyou're friends. Thank you, you're very
kind. Well, it's true.Thank you, it's very true. So
thank you so much. And again, if you'd like to help out,
you can go to S four eglobaldot org and the website will show you
how you can donate. It canshow you what you can do other than
donate if you need to, ifyou want to volunteer. There were so
(20:57):
many different things, like Robin said, but you can read it all about
it at S four E global dotorg, followed them on social and keep
spreading the word and Robin, keepfighting the good fight and doing all that
you do because you really are veryspecial. So much, Maria, I
appreciate I appreciate you reaching out,and I appreciate you given us time for
this. Absolutely operator and just Seator
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