One of the more heart-warming stories to emerge from the environmental movement lately is the plan to set up a retirement home for old and unemployed elephants in northern Thailand.
Yes, we did say unemployed. Also addicted. It turns out a 1989 logging ban idled thousands of career elephants, some of which are now drugged with amphetamines and forced to work long hours in illegal logging.The Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation is riding to the rescue. It means to raise enough money to set up a preserve where elephants captured in crackdowns on illegal logging can receive medical care and be readied to return to the wild for their golden years.
The older we get, the more we appreciate such generous concern for the retired.