For 50 years, Raju the elephant endured unspeakable mistreatment and abuse at the hands of his owners. Kept in spiked chains and forced to interact with people on the back roads of India in order to earn money for his owners, Raju was nothing but skin and bones when he was rescued by members of Wildlife SOS.
With scars on his body that bore silent witness to the abuse he suffered at the hands of his owners, Raju was hungry and exhausted when he was finally freed from his hellish existence.
It took more than a year of legal maneuvering after animal welfare activists discovered Raju for him to be freed and it is unclear exactly how many owners Raju had, although rescuers have been able to trace as many as 27.
Officials from Wildlife SOS said that Raju was so hungry when he was freed that he ate paper and plastic before they could stop him. In addition, his nails were overgrown and he had abscesses and wounds on his legs as a result of being shackled 24 hours a day and from continually walking on concrete covered roads.
It took the dedicated members of Wildlife SOS an entire night to remove the shackles from Raju’s legs. When he realized he was finally being freed, tears streamed down Raju’s face and he took a 350 mile freedom ride to Wildlife SOS’s Elephant Conservation Care Center in Mathura, where he is learning to enjoy and love life as an emancipated elephant.
