This winter, Kennedy Herbsleb, 21, of Lodi, spent two weeks in Thailand helping animals and learning hands-on what it’s like to be a veterinarian.Traveling with study-abroad organization Loop Abroad, Kennedy was selected as part of a small team that volunteered giving care at a dog shelter and spent a week working directly with rescued elephants at an elephant sanctuary.The Veterinary Service program brings students to Thailand for two weeks to volunteer alongside veterinarians from the US and Thailand. For one week, Kennedy and her team volunteered at an elephant sanctuary outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand to work with the giant animals and learn about animal rescue and conservation on a larger scale.The elephants at the sanctuary have been rescued from trekking, logging or forced breeding programs. Many of them had been abused and suffer from chronic injuries or blindness. At the elephant sanctuary, they are cared for by volunteers from around the world.Kennedy fed and cared for elephants, as well as learn about their diagnoses alongside an elephant vet. The sanctuary is also home to over 1,000 animals, including cats, dogs, water buffalo, horses and cows, and is sustained in huge part by the work of weekly volunteers such as…

Yogawinetravel.com: Visiting Orphaned Baby Elephants at the Elephant Transit Home in Udawalawe, Sri Lanka. Read on for how to plan your visit to the Elephant Transit Home and support the conservation and protection of Asian elephants!To read the full article, click on the story title.

Two young Chinese men are on a mission to protect elephants. One of them is Zhang Chaodao, the director of a documentary revealing the inhumane training and treatment of elephants in Thailand. Zhang said he will never forget the sight and sounds that he experienced during one encounter in the Southeast Asian country."Suddenly, the elephant didn't want to go," he said. "The mahout again used his ankus to hook the elephant. Then we heard the sound of the elephant skin ripped apart, with his ankus. Then this elephant suddenly started going crazy. It has the sound that we could never imagine in our lives." The Shanghai video maker is the producer of a 9-minute documentary called "Black Elephant" in Thailand. Zhang said, "Thailand is the biggest tourist spot for Chinese people. A lot of Chinese people go there, and on their bucket lists, the first thing is riding elephants or watching an elephant show. I would like more Chinese people to see what's going on."The documentary has been viewed online millions of times since its release in 2017. He urges travelers to stop riding elephants and watching elephant shows, and go to elephant sanctuaries instead and travel more responsibly."As a…

LEADERSHIP-The federal government has commenced investigation into alleged trafficking of wildlife species to Vietnam and Hong Kong purported to have originated from Apapa Seaport, Lagos. The Vietnamese Customs Service had intercepted over 2,500 kilograms of pangolin scales and 600 kilograms of Ivory tusks as well as 8,200 kilograms of pangolin scales and 2,000 kilograms of Ivory were also intercepted by Hong Kong Custom Service. The minister of environment,Suleiman Hassan Zarma, stated this in Abuja yesterday while reacting to media reports on the seized items considered as valuable items and used as medicinal ingredients in parts of Asia, especially China. According to him, “The ministry has initiated investigation of the reported illegal trade by communicating officially with the Vietnamese and Hong Kong CITES management authority with a view to providing us with the documents that will be forwarded to the Nigerian Customs Service and INTERPOL for further investigation.” He pointed out that he was disappointed to receive information that Vietnamese Customs discovered concealed containers declared as consigning knocked wood by Vietnamese company, VIC Thanh Binh Import-Export Company Limited with its office address at Lien Hong Commune, Dan Phuong District, Hanoi. Zarma noted that the most worrisome aspect of the information was…