Back in the summer of 2018 when launching the successful capital campaign for our Elephant Health Care Center (EHCC), it was unimaginable how the world would change throughout the construction of this state-of-the-art vet lab and two-stall elephant barn that YOUR generous investment made possible. We are incredibly grateful and humbled to report that The Elephant Sanctuary has been able to adjust its operations this spring to ensure priority for safety of staff and elephants throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, while observing steady progress in building the EHCC! We know that seeing is believing, so we are pleased to share with you aerial videos and recent photos captured at the site of the EHCC. The field where so much groundwork has been laid in the past year now features two structures raised and ready for interior construction and outfitting to begin!
Construction crews have successfully and safely worked these past months to prepare the site, put in barn and lab concrete floors, install plumbing, build insulated walls, and add the roofs for both facilities. With the buildings now walled in, electricity and HVAC are being installed, and the focus shifts to the interior of the buildings with elephant gates and Protected Contact training wall construction. Soon solar panels will be added to the barn's roof, and our fencing contractor will dig the trenches necessary for laying reinforced steel fencing to enclose the 3.6-acre EHCC habitat. We hope for future expansion of this area to 20 acres, allowing even more space for elephants under close veterinary observation to roam and express natural elephant behaviors while remaining close to the vet team’s diagnostic and treatment capabilities.
We are so excited to continue sharing updates with you, our partners in building this Elephant Health Care Center, which will transform the individualized care we can provide to our aging elephants, and help us share that knowledge with experts all over the globe.