Articles

After making a “wish list” what elephants need and like, we started looking for land in Belgium, but very soon we realized that there was not lot’s of land anymore available or it is way too expensive. So we started looking for other destinations to create Elephant Haven and each time France came up in […]

We started to ask people to be in our advisory board. Soon we received replies from renowned elephant people who have experience with captive elephants and elephants in the wild, founders of sanctuaries, zoo keepers and vets. http://www.elephanthaven.com/en/elephant-haven/advisory-board In July 2012 we went to see the Dalai Lama, and in September 2012, Elephant Haven released […]

After informing our friends, colleagues and family, we went on to “create” Elephant Haven. Of course, we both were still working as full time zookeepers at the zoo. I always worked with Asian elephants so experience was needed with African elephants, since Elephant Haven will welcome both species. We keep in contact with other people […]

The website and the Facebook page were set up just before we left to launch Elephant Haven at the PAWS elephant summit in March 2012 in Oakland Zoo. Together with Leonie and her husband Barry we started up Elephant Haven. Leonie was the director of “Wilde dieren de tent uit” and Barry IT specialist. Due […]

…but where do we start? In 2011 I stayed in Elephant Nature Park http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/ in Chiang Mai in Thailand  for 3 months .  Elephant Nature Park is a sanctuary in the North of Thailand where they rescue elephants from the tourist industry, logging industry and landmine victims. After being volunteers there the year before with […]

Elephant Haven,  The first retirement home for elephants in Europe. Everybody loves elephants, love to watch them in the wild, on T.V., in a zoo, in a circus…. But where are elephants going to when they are too old to be in the circus, when a country is banning the wild animals in circuses or […]