True Blood’s Authority member, Carolyn Hennesy joins the fight to protect the elephant. She has lent her support to a new documentary called “Elephant in the Room.” This is a documentary project by Jeff Boucher about the ongoing conflict in the animal world regarding the handling of elephants (and other animals) in zoos, circuses and private facilities. Though often touted as a free vs. protected-contact issue, it’s really all about dominance/fear vs. positive reinforcement/trust based methods.
There is a fundraiser going on over at Kickstarter for this documentary and below is information about the project.
It’s a subject that’s generated a mountain of controversy for professionals in the field — it’s also an issue the average person knows virtually nothing about.
To be clear, we are staunch supporters of good animal facilities and their ability to inspire generations of conservationists, trainers and animal lovers. However, given the options available today, we believe the antiquated training methods often used need to be given a fresh look.
We intend to take our “look” at this issue in a comprehensive manner using:
- Interviews with celebrity animal supporters, including actress Carolyn Hennesy who stars in Season 5 of the wildly popular HBO series, “True Blood.” Visit her website at www.carolynhennesy.com.
- Interviews with industry leaders including pioneers in the positive reinforcement movement as well as practitioners of more traditional training methods.
- Live-action footage of elephant training and care from locations around the world.
- Existing videos of incidents and historical footage.
So far, we have funded everything out of our own pockets. We are now in the home-stretch and are trying to raise funds for final on-location filming and post-production editing.
This is a very important issue and we need to make people aware of what is going on. Your contributions really will make a significant difference in the lives of elephants around the world! So PLEASE, help us to spread the word and contribute if you can!http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elephantdocu/elephant-in-the-room
Watch the video below to fully understand what they are attempting to do for the elephant and all the zoo and circus animals:
Carolyn is fundraising for this documentary that she is shooting right now in Thailand and Cambodia and is tweeting about her adventure here: https://twitter.com/carolynhennesy/
She also uploaded a video of one of her experiences watching elephants get bathed and the use of the hook.
