How Juliette West Became an Elephant

During Thailand’s annual Elephant Roundup, 300 captive elephants twirl hoops, throw darts, engage in mock battles and perform other routines for an audience of thousands.

But there was one less elephant performing last year. A severely injured, 40-year-old female named Ratree was rescued from the roundup by Juliette West, a 14-year-old from Pacific Palisades, Calif.

How I Became an Elephant, a documentary about the rescue and the plight of Southeast Asian elephants, premiered this week in Hollywood.

West’s passion for elephants was sparked last year when she learned about the Los Angeles Zoo's plans to build a 3.6-acre habitat for Billy, an elephant that has lived alone in a half-acre exhibit at the zoo for 20 years.

She wrote to the L.A. city council, telling them that elephants need to walk at least 20 miles each day, and urged them to send Billy to a wildlife sanctuary instead. (Protests from West, Lily Tomlin, Bob Barker and many other animal welfare advocates were ignored; the new "Elephants of Asia" exhibit opens on December 16.)

Undettered, West educated herself further about the treatment of elephants, meeting with representatives from zoos and a wildlife sanctuary. When she heard about the Elephant Roundup, she raised the $10,000 necessary to purchase one of the elephants and transport it to a sanctuary. Then she met filmmaker and animal advocate Tim Gorski at last year’s National Animal Rights Conference. Gorski wrote in the Palisadian-Post that he’d been filming Asian elephants and was looking for an angle to bring his stories to an American audience.

"Juliette, how do you feel about going on an adventure?" he asked her.

In November 2009, West and Gorski took off for the Elephant Roundup in Surin. They met up with Lek Chailert of Thailand, who is known as The Elephant Lady. Chailert has been rescuing sick and injured pachyderms for 30 years. She founded Elephant Nature Park, Thailand's first sanctuary for abused elephants.

They decided to rescue Ratree because she was in the worst condition of all the elephants, with broken bones from spending decades in a captive breeding program. In these programs, females are restrained while males mount them, and the females often die of internal injuries. Fewer than 2 percent of their offspring survive.

The process to teach the elephants to throw darts and twirl hoops is also inhumane, involving the use of bullhooks as a training device. In my story about elephant rides at the Santa Ana Zoo, the zoo director dismissively compared a bullhook to a dog collar. I asked both West and Gorski if this was a realistic comparison.

"The bullhook is designed for one purpose, and one purpose only: to inflict pain and punishment," West replied. "To justify the comparison of a pointy, sharp bullhook to a dog collar, would require the dog collar to contain sharp pointy spikes on the inside of the collar, causing continual emotional and physical suffering throughout the dog’s life."

Gorski agreed. "The collar on my dog is only used to keep her name tag attached in case she loses me in the woods. It is not used to control her and never ever draws blood or creates open sores," he responded.

Since she returned from Thailand, West has visited local schools to talk about her experience and raise students’ awareness about elephants.

Ratree died at the sanctuary in March. West said in the Palisadian-Post article that, while it was sad because the elephant had been through so much before her rescue, at least "she died in a happy place."

In the documentary, West is asked if she thinks she was accepted into the herd of elephants at the sanctuary, as they had accepted Ratree.

Yes, West replies. "That’s how I became an elephant."

Wouldn’t it be great if we all could become elephants?

Photo credit: Eddy Van 3000