Dec. 29, 2013 - West Coast Trip - Washing and Feeding an Elephant

Wild Things is an animal sanctuary near Salinas, CA. They provide a home for a wide variety of wild animals. Many of the animals were advertising models or circus performers who are retired. They have several African elephants and Diana and I signed up for a tour package that included feeding and bathing one of them. We worked with Butch, the largest of the elephants, shown on the left in this photo. He weighed in at 5 tons.

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Butch, shown here following his trainer to the washing area, was the elephant we fed and bathed. We were impressed at how large Butch was when we got right up next to him. He was very gentle, however, and we had a great time with him.

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To bathe Butch, we used a bucket of water and some special soap gentle enough for his skin. Long-handled brushes allowed us to reach up high enough to scrub his sides.

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We each got a loaf of bread to feed Butch. He was very adept at taking one piece of bread at a time with his trunk. He worked very quickly, however, so the bread didn’t last long.

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Before we left, Butch showed us his impressive looking teeth.

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