Endangered Ark Foundation — Attraction in Hugo

I was really excited to go see some rescued elephants but the experience left me sad. Short review: This places uses bull-hooks on elephants, we watched one being used, elephants are exhibiting stressed behavior. Long review: When I was looking to book it only allows for parties of 5 which made me believe the tours would be with small groups, less stress for elephants but this is not true. When you drive up there you will see tons of old circus equipment and buildings, they are all on the same property. It looks really trashy and makes you wonder why its still there and why there's people occupying that area when these are rescued from the circus. Pretty sure this place is owned by the circus. The first elephants we saw was a mom and baby. Of course everyone was happy to see them and very excited. Very quickly several people saw the swaying behavior and then whispers of how thats not normal and is a sign of stress. Mom would pick up hay and put it in her mouth and spit it out. They brought in another elephant that they made blow paint on a shirt, and do a foot print which they auction off starting at $50. This is where I go really upset. One of the guys that was handling the elephant seemed very odd. He got behind the elephant and would poke her with the stick, thinking we couldn't see but everyone saw. I was about to lose it. He was constantly telling the elephant something every time she had any movement. At one point she put her trunk in her mouth and he aggressively pulled it out and said stop doing that! I have posted a pic of right before he did this. We took a ride through the area and saw some other elephants in the distance and they were also staying in one place and swaying so it wasn't just one elephant doing this, it was several. We got to feed a couple of elephants some bananas. If you are in a larger group you will only get to feed one. That was the best part of this whole thing is being next to a gentle giant and getting to look them in the eye. I was more interest in going to a place that condoned having elephants in circus environments. This place seems to be a partner of the circus to retire their elephants after the abuse has happened. I have a hard time trying to understand if the swaying is from current stress or prior stress and now bad habits. Either way my heart hurt especially seeing an elephant being "handled" with a tool that a lot of places see are cruel and unnecessary. I will say that the girl seemed knowledgable and seems to truly care for the elephants and developing a relationship with them. She mentioned that she worked for Ringling Brother before. The conditions are not terrible and they are much better than some but I don't think this place is doing all it can.

Would I spend money...

This place is a scam and their intentions towards the elephants aren’t pure. If you visit this “ Sanctuary” you need to pay close attention to the elephants and how they are living instead of the illusion the staff provides. DO YOUR RESEARCH ABOUT THIS PLACE BEFORE YOU COME!! My mother planned this trip for us for my birthday this weekend because I’m a huge animal lover but while we were there I encountered a number of alarming things about this place so when the tour was over I did research and they are in fact associated with Carson & Barnes Circus which I believe is now shut down due to numerous animal cruelty incidents! During the tour one of the staff members even mentions most of the elephants come from a circus they “rescued”. We stayed in one of their tree houses so I got to watch them for hours from where I was staying. The staff separates all the elephants besides the mother and her babies and all the males are together which makes sense but the other females are all alone in their pens for the entire day with absolutely no water or food in any of the pens until night time when they put them up in the barn which after talking to a staff member they are still separated in. During our tour they stated they have over 250 acres of land but can’t even give each elephant not even a half acre? That’s absolutely ridiculous and cruel! I have videos/ pictures of every single elephant swaying back and fourth in distress because of how small the enclosure is without food or water all day everyday until they get put up. A lady on the tour asked why they did that and the head guy that “trains” the elephants with a bull hook said they only do that at night because they are waiting to get fed which isn’t true I watched them do it all day! I felt so sad for these beautiful animals, I didn’t want to be there and help these people continue to mistreat them. My mother felt horrible because she didn’t do her research on the place before hand she just went to the website and saw good reviews of people that don’t actually pay close enough attention to the animals and what they are going through only what they and the staff provide for them.

If you don’t believe me you can go on PETA website which is an animal activist organization and they even did a review on them.

Always do your research before going to wild animal facilities! Don’t always trust the words “ Sanctuary” “safe” “rescued”

I can only post pictures unfortunately it won’t let me upload the videos I took of them swaying...

I don’t often post reviews, but this is definitely an experience worthy of taking the time to write a review!! My five year old adores elephants (& always has) and wanted to be able to “go visit elephants” for her birthday. The Endangered Ark Foundation public tour blew us away! When we arrived we were greeted by Brandon (who we later found out was the grandson of the original owner) with a warm greeting. We got to spend a few minutes looking around the cute (reasonably priced) gift shop while he took the time and initiative to kindly call the few people signed up for our tour who hadn’t arrived a few minutes before it was supposed to begin, to make sure they weren’t lost and didn’t need help finding it (which was so thoughtful and helpful). The educational portion of the tour was so fun and engaging for adults and kids alike. They had a random drawing for a lucky audience member to get to feed an elephant a popsicle and an auction for the painting one of the sweet elephants made during our presentation (to raise money for the food and care of the elephants). We won the auction for the painting, and my little girl got to go pose with the elephant for a photo with her painting, and the elephant even held up a “happy birthday” sign for her photo too! The entire presentation was very interactive and we all loved it! Then we got on a little trolly type thing and got to ride around the land touring the areas the elephants were roaming. We got to get out at one point and each family had the opportunity to have special time with two of the elephants, feeding them a snack, petting them, and taking pictures with them. Brandon offered to take photos of families during their time with the elephants so they could just enjoy the time but have special photos. It was “the best day ever” for my little elephant lover, and a great time for the rest of us too! I highly recommend making the trip to Hugo for...