The Secret of Trees

The Secret of Trees | Albert Maysles from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

Born From One Bright Dot

One Bright Dot from Clément Morin on Vimeo.

A little light rises from the deep sea.

Pictures : Clément Morin
Music : Etienne Forget - etienneforget.com
Sound Design : Hugo Thouin

Some still frames here:
behance.net/gallery/25195695/One-Bright-Dot

© 2015 - clement-morin.com
facebook.com/clementmorindotcom

# vimeo.com/124400795

Elephant Transfer to Sanctuaries (Past Cases/Documentary)

  Discussions of elephant welfare and how (especially older elephants) can benefit from relocation out of zoos and into sanctuaries have occurred in the past several years re; specific cases in Anchorage, Edmonton and Toronto zoos.  In the cases involving Anchorage and Toronto, four elephants were transferred to the PAWS sanctuary in California.  All have readjusted and are doing very well.  Their current status is available here:   http://www.pawsweb.org/meet_elephants.html

From PETA http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/zoos/get-elephants-zoos/:

Elephants require vast spaces to roam, socialize, and express their natural behavior. They are highly social animals who, in the wild, live in matriarchal herds, forage for fresh vegetation, play, bathe in rivers, travel as far as 30 miles per day, and are active for 18 hours per day. 

Zoos’ lack of space creates health problems in elephants, such as muscular-skeletal ailments, arthritis, foot and joint diseases, reproductive problems, high infant mortality rates, and psychological distress (as is evidenced by repetitive swaying, head-bobbing, and pacing). Captivity-induced health problems are the leading cause of death of elephants in zoos—they are dying decades short of their expected life span. 

The elephant standards adopted by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) are woefully inadequate, and many AZA zoos that display elephants do not meet even these meager requirements. The AZA’s indoor space requirements can be satisfied with a stall that is only 20 feet by 20 feet in area; this means extreme confinement for elephants who are kept indoors overnight and during inclement weather. Outdoor enclosures need measure only 40 feet by 45 feet—about the size of a three-car garage.

A number of zoos have already chosen to close down their elephant exhibits (Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, etc) to enable their elephants to live out their lives under more humane conditions.

Re; the elephants associated with the Anchorage, Edmonton and Toronto zoos, attached is a four part documentary that provides a great deal of information:

Update on Seattle Elephants and Their Need for Space/Sanctuary

Zoo leadership maintains that SPACE IS NOT AN ISSUE WITH ASIAN ELEPHANTS:

Scott Blais, co-founder of The Elephant Sanctuary in TN, speaking about founding the Sanctuary:

“We set out to give elephants their life back…to create a space where they can live with others of their own kind where they can make their own choices of where they go, when they go there...where most of their diet comes from natural forage...to encourage natural behavior and natural social structure. Doing this…it’s a challenge with captive elephants. We are essentially putting a bunch of elephants that are completely unrelated together and saying “okay, here’s your family now” and it’s the same thing that happens in zoos where you put 3 or 4 elephants together -- The difference with a sanctuary is now they have enough space that they can choose where they go, they can choose who they hang out with. When you are in a small space, you’re kind of stuck…forced to be roommates and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t work, it can be catastrophic. In a small environment, there’s nowhere to flee to. In a large space they have the opportunity to walk away, and keep walking away…We started off with 100 acres and realized, that wasn’t enough…We are often asked “how many acres per elephant does it require to sustain them?” To sustain their diet, maybe 10-20 acres per elephant; but when you talk about the social needs and the psychological needs, we don’t have a number on that.”

…Once the group of elephants was allowed onto the 2200 acres corridor…they thrived. They started wandering off and we saw another layer of growth and development with them that was just exponential…The Sanctuary was created to create a life where elephants can just be elephants.

(In the wild) “Intimate family groups tend to be all related individuals. It’s mother, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, young males…if a female is born into a herd, they are there for their entire lives. They form very, very strong, very close bonds. It is in their nature to do so…In captivity, to try to re-create that…it’s challenging.

We kept our minds open to the elephants. We wanted to see what their needs were. We went into it with this concept of 100 acres is enormous…we may let them all free and they are all going to become rogue and wild. We saw exactly the opposite. One: 100 acres isn’t enormous to an elephant and Two: we saw once they had the space, once they had the freedom and autonomy, they became much more placid, they became much more co-operative…that doesn’t mean there aren’t struggles involved…but generally speaking elephants will thrive when you give them that much space. So in opening up our minds to elephants in that way we learned…how much we discredit them and don’t do them justice, not only with their spatial limitations but also the psychological and emotional limitations that…constrain an elephant’s life. …what we do to them in captivity is…contradictory to what we say about them. Giving them more space allows them to become their full selves. I think until you have the opportunity to see that, you don’t fully comprehend what that means.

It is still a managed operation, it is just managed with significantly more freedom and autonomy.

-Scott Blais interviewed by Duncan Strauss on "Talking Animals," October 30, 2013
http://www.talkinganimals.net/…/scott-blais-elephant-exper…/

I am unable to attach the audio link from talking animals.net but, as mentioned above, it is very worthwhile to listen to!

Scott Blais, elephant expert & ambassador | Talking Animals

Scott Blais—CEO and Board President of the newly-formed Global Sanctuary for Elephants—discusses his more than 20 years experience working with

TALKINGANIMALS.NET

Update on Two Elephants in Need of Help (From Change. Org)

PETITION UPDATE

Appeals Court Grants Temporary Stay of Elephant Move

Children Helping Elephants

Apr 7, 2015 — The appeals Court has granted a temporary stay of the elephant move to OKC Zoo and will hold a hearing on Thursday! This is big news as the court seemed to be dismissing the issue.

Yesterday Children Helping Elephants spoke at Seattle City council, you can see what our parent and child representative said in this 2 min video: www.tinyurl.com/kids4elescc. We also delivered a document to council members and the mayor that included the text of our petition, the text of statements made at council and samples of the art kids have created. This effort is gaining attention and making a difference! In just over 24 hours, we already have over 1,000 signatures. We are so proud of the kids. You can see pictures of them at council on our facebook page: www.facebook.com/childrenhelpingelephants

Thanks so much to everyone who has signed this petition, please continue to share and draw attention to this issue!

Help Two Elephants in Need (Copied from Change.Org)

Petitioning The Executive Leadership Team of Woodland Park Zoo and 2 others

Send the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, Chai and Bamboo, to a sanctuary

This is a petition generated by the kids of the Children Helping Elephants movement in Seattle, WA.

Background:  The Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) in Seattle, WA, has decided to close it's elephant exhibit. This decision was made after years of public pressure. Instead of sending the two elephants to a sanctuary as many experts recommend the public would prefer, WPZ has decided to send them to the Oklahoma City Zoo which has less acreage per elephant than WPZ and a less hospitable climate. The Seattle community is not happy about this decision and the region's children are taking action.

The following petition statement is a compilation of children’s quotes collected by Children Helping Elephants. Contributors range in age from 4-16 and come from all across the Seattle region. Here is what the kids say:

“What happens to elephants matters to us. Elephants are living creatures with minds of their own. They have feelings, just like you and me. They need a lot of space to move their bodies and be healthy. When they never get to explore or see new things, they get bored. Sometimes they get mad. Wouldn’t you be mad if you weren’t allowed to decide what to do with your own body? How would you feel if you were behind a fence with nothing to do and lots of strangers staring at you every day for your entire life?

When we watch elephants in zoos, we aren’t watching them be elephants. We are watching them be sad. We don’t need elephants in zoos so that we can learn about them. There are so many other ways to learn about elephants that are more interesting and that don’t make elephants sad and unhealthy. Watching the elephants on sanctuary cameras, we can see them being their elephant selves. We see them feeling relaxed, being friends, playing. It’s not the same as watching what they do in the wild, but they are so much happier than zoo elephants. The only thing we learn about elephants from zoos is that zoos aren’t right for elephants.

What the zoo is doing to Chai and Bamboo is wrong. It makes us worry that they are doing wrong things for other animals too and that makes us not want to go to the zoo anymore.

We ask all the adults who agree with us to sign this petition. It will also help if you write a letter to the zoo so they will know that we all care about Chai and Bamboo. We ask kids who care to make art for the elephants and share it with us so we can see other kids’ ideas.

Please help us save the elephants.”

--The Kids of the Children Helping Elephants movement, Seattle, WA

More about Children Helping Elephants: 

This effort began with one girl named Stella who wanted to help the elephants. Stella decided the best way to advocate for Chai and Bamboo was through art. Stella and her mom started a website so that other kids could participate and share their creations, as well as a Facebook page. We know that lots of other children care about the elephants and that many voices raised together are a powerful force for change. Children Helping Elephants has collected art and ideas from children all over the region advocating for the sanctuary move. We held an exhibit of the art collected during the first two weeks of the effort. We hope you will join our movement and spread the word to all of the children in your life! Our mission is to help elephants while also empowering children to create positive change in the world. 

LETTER TO

The Executive Leadership Team of Woodland Park Zoo

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray

The Members of the Seattle City Council

Send the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, Chai and Bamboo, to a sanctuary.

Milton Glaser, Graphic Designer

MILTON GLASER - NEW YORK TIMES from Poppy de Villeneuve on Vimeo.