Episode 4 Keeping an open perspective: Kat & Scott explain how they shifted the focus from captive elephants not only in South America, but globally, thus leading to the founding of GSE. While replicating TES (which Scott co-founded) might have seemed an obvious choice, other options like a halfway home in South America with the final destination in Cambodia were also considered before settling on Brazil, as 35 of the 50 captive elephants were located here. Listen to two funny and interesting stories of the many properties Scott & Kat looked at during their 30-day stay in Brazil. Back home in the US, it soon becomes clear that finalizing land deals via emails and phone calls was not going to work. A higher level of commitment was necessary, and their promise to Ramba was still waiting to be fulfilled. The episode transcript can be found here. Email: We’d love to hear from you podcast@globalelephants.org Who we are: Global Sanctuary for Elephants exists to create vast, safe spaces for captive elephants, where they are able to heal physically and emotionally. There are elephants around the world in need of sanctuary, but too few places exist to be able to care for even a fraction of the elephants. International support is necessary to build sanctuaries for elephants in need of rescue and rehabilitation. Our pilot project is Elephant Sanctuary Brazil, currently home to six female Asian elephants. Website: https://globalelephants.org/ Donate: Global Sanctuary for Elephants is a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit. Our work is made possible by donations. You can support our work with a general donation, purchasing items from our wishlist, or adopting one (or all) of our elephants for a year. You can also donate with Crypto! Thank you for your support! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter While we encourage and appreciate you sharing our podcast, please note that… This presentation is protected by U.S. and International copyright laws. Reproduction and distribution of the presentation or its contents without written permission of the sponsor is prohibited. © 2023 Global Sanctuary for Elephants A big Thank You to the talented musicians Mike McGill, Ron McGill, & Sean Rodriquez for composing our podcast jingle.

In this episode, we talk more about the ways that Scott & Kat observed the elephants at TES (The Elephant Sanctuary in TN) on a daily basis and how, as they showed the elephants they were paying attention to what was being communicated, the elephants began to open up and reveal more of themselves over time. We touch on the complexities of listening, seeing, and understanding the nuances of elephant communication (a topic for several episodes). While it is now more common to call for captive elephants to be sent to sanctuary, 10 years ago this was not the case. The individual recovery stories of sanctuary elephants have shaped how society views the life of captive elephants and what their lives in captivity could and should look like. The transcript for this episode can be found here. Write to us: podcast@globalelephants.org Who we are: Global Sanctuary for Elephants exists to create vast, safe spaces for captive elephants, where they are able to heal physically and emotionally. There are elephants around the world in need of sanctuary, but too few places exist to be able to care for even a fraction of the elephants. International support is necessary to build sanctuaries for elephants in need of rescue and rehabilitation. Our pilot project is Elephant Sanctuary Brazil, currently home to six female Asian elephants. Website: https://globalelephants.org/ Donate: Global Sanctuary for Elephants is a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit. Our work is made possible by donations. You can support our work with a general donation, purchasing items from our wishlist, or adopting one (or all) of our elephants for a year. You can also donate with Crypto! Thank you for your support! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter While we encourage and appreciate you sharing our podcast, please note that… This presentation is protected by U.S. and International copyright laws. Reproduction and distribution of the presentation or its contents without written permission of the sponsor is prohibited. © 2023 Global Sanctuary for Elephants A big Thank You to the talented musicians Mike McGill, Ron McGill, & Sean Rodriquez for composing our podcast jingle.

In our 2nd episode, Scott & Kat talk about the face value of elephant trauma and how it wasn’t until they saw the magnitude of recovery possible at sanctuary that they realized how deep the impact of harmful captivity had been on each elephant’s soul. We talk about their brief elephant-free months after leaving the sanctuary in Tennessee, in 2011, until meeting the last circus elephant in Chile, Ramba, made them realize that they were destined to dedicate their lives toward elephant care. The episode transcript can be found here.  Who we are: Global Sanctuary for Elephants exists to create vast, safe spaces for captive elephants, where they are able to heal physically and emotionally. There are elephants around the world in need of sanctuary, but too few places exist to be able to care for even a fraction of the elephants. International support is necessary to build sanctuaries for elephants in need of rescue and rehabilitation. Our pilot project is Elephant Sanctuary Brazil, currently home to six female Asian elephants. Website: https://globalelephants.org/ Donate: Global Sanctuary for Elephants is a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit. Our work is made possible by donations. You can support our work with a general donation, purchasing items from our wishlist, or adopting one (or all) of our elephants for a year. You can also donate with Crypto! Thank you for your support! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter While we encourage and appreciate you sharing our podcast, please note that… This presentation is protected by U.S. and International copyright laws. Reproduction and distribution of the presentation or its contents without written permission of the sponsor is prohibited. © 2023 Global Sanctuary for Elephants A big Thank You to the talented musicians Mike McGill, Ron McGill, & Sean Rodriquez for composing our podcast jingle.

From working at a safari park as a teenager to needing a change from the routine work in the veterinary field, Scott and Kat’s careers in captive elephant welfare couldn’t have started much differently. Find out how the dark side of elephant care opened Scott Blais’s eyes to their immense suffering and how the violent death of Tyke, a circus elephant, led to him co-founding his first sanctuary, The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee (TES). Learn how Kat Blais left New York to work with elephants as an intern at TES and never looked back. Transcript of this episode is available here.  Who we are: Global Sanctuary for Elephants exists to create vast, safe spaces for captive elephants, where they are able to heal physically and emotionally. There are elephants around the world in need of sanctuary, but too few places exist to be able to care for even a fraction of the elephants. International support is necessary to build sanctuaries for elephants in need of rescue and rehabilitation. Our pilot project is Elephant Sanctuary Brazil, currently home to six female Asian elephants. Website: https://globalelephants.org/ Donate: Global Sanctuary for Elephants is a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit. Our work is made possible by donations. You can support our work with a general donation, purchasing items from our wishlist, or adopting one (or all) of our elephants for a year. You can also donate with Crypto!  Thank you for your support! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter While we encourage and appreciate you sharing our podcast, please note that… This presentation is protected by U.S. and International copyright laws. Reproduction and distribution of the presentation or its contents without written permission of the sponsor is prohibited. © 2023 Global Sanctuary for Elephants A big Thank You to the talented musicians Mike McGill, Ron McGill, & Sean Rodriquez for composing our podcast jingle.

Coming February 2023: Global Sanctuary for Elephants’ brand new podcast, Global Rumbling. Join our host, Nadia Mari, as she talks to Scott & Kat Blais, co-founders of GSE about how their careers in captive elephant welfare began, why they founded South America’s first elephant sanctuary, and their plans for the future. Subscribe today join our herd and gain a deeper understanding of who elephants are. Who we are: Global Sanctuary for Elephants exists to create vast, safe spaces for captive elephants, where they are able to heal physically and emotionally. There are elephants around the world in need of sanctuary, but too few places exist to be able to care for even a fraction of the elephants. International support is necessary to build sanctuaries for elephants in need of rescue and rehabilitation. Our pilot project is Elephant Sanctuary Brazil, currently home to six female Asian elephants. https://GlobalElephants.org Donate: Global Sanctuary for Elephants is a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit. Our work is made possible by donations. You can support our work with a general donation, purchasing items from our wishlist, or adopting one (or all) of our elephants for a year. You can also donate with Crypto! https://globalelephants.org/how-to-help/ Thank you for your support! Email: We’d love to hear from you podcast@globalelephants.org