Our Story
The story of our beginning is best told by our Founder and Chairman, Phillip Hathaway:
“It has been said the divine gifts are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self control. Anyone who has spent time with elephants know they possess more of these qualities than humans. And, they are incomparably closer to their families than us.
“This is why I was so terribly troubled when I discovered that 30,000 to 50,000 of them were being literally butchered alive in the most heinous fashion for their tusks each year.
“In one well documented case, several families of elephants sought safety in a herd which grew to over 300. But they were ambushed by poachers on horseback wielding machine guns and hand grenades. All of them – even the little babies – were unmercifully slaughtered. After learning of this, I was unable to sleep that night.
“The next morning I volunteered at several internationally-known organizations with declared missions to save elephants. Yet, none were excepting volunteers; and equally disconcerting, they were not forthcoming with information. And, the information they provided was woefully outdated.
Phillip walking with a herd of African Elephants.
“Nevertheless, I continued talking with experts to create a plan to halt this horrific massacre. However, during the course of these conversations I found no clear, viable plan to stop it.
“Although millions and millions of dollars were being poured over and around the problem year after year, the genocide wasn’t slowing down – it was accelerating!
“Nothing was changing on the ground in the elephant ranges. The poachers and hunters were having a free-for-all.
“I was aghast! I stood back and said to myself, ‘Oh, my God! This is worse than I thought.’
“I knew to end the killing, we needed a meaningful plan of action and people’s help from around the world.
“That was when I knew I had to start my own organization. So, I founded a 501 (c) (3) public charity, ElephantRescue.Net. This is a systemic plan in which we hope to effect life on the ground for elephants in range states, creating a barrier to market demand, traffickers, poachers and their partners in corrupt governments.”
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