On Elephants: I just finished reading Jonathan Balcombe's extraordinary photo essay book entitled The Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure. Will also interviewed this author on February 23. I hope you were fortunate enough to tune into that great discussion. Regarding elephants, Balcombe describes (p. 108) an incident among free elephants witnessed by expert observers.

".when Eleanor, the matriarch of a family unit called the First Ladies, became gravely ill and fell to the ground, she was aided by Grace, the matriarch of another family called the Virtues. Seeing her down, Grace ran over to Eleanor with her tail raised and temporal glands streaming secretions, sniffed and touched Eleanor with her trunk and foot, then used her tusks to help lift Eleanor to her feet. But the effort was ultimately unsuccessful, and during the week following Eleanor's death, elephants from five family units visited her body. There can be no question that elephants show deep emotional concern for others."

He also notes that spindle cells, which are large neurons thought to be responsible in the human brain for empathy, love, and emotional suffering, have been discovered in the brains of other primates, whales and now elephants.

The campaign in Topeka to free elephants Tembo and Sunda continues. The zoo appears to be seriously considering closing the exhibit soon. However, they could send these long suffering elephants to another zoo instead of to The Elephant Sanctuary as we are requesting. Please keep Tembo and Sunda and the decision makers in your powerful and compassionate prayers over the next few months.