Julie, an African elephant, was transported from her old home at the circus to Pangea Elephant Sanctuary in Alentejo, Portugal, on June 30. She was captured as a calf in Africa in the late 1980s and began performing in circuses in Portugal in 1988.
Sanctuary Life
The Portuguese government passed a law in 2018 stating that circuses would no longer be able to use wild animals by 2024. Once she didn’t have to perform anymore, she was left with nowhere to go, until Pangea Elephant Sanctuary reached out to her former owner.
The sanctuary, the first of its kind in Europe, was still being built, but they began coordinating Julie’s move as the first elephant to live on site. Managing director of the sanctuary, Kate Moore, said: “Julie is the first elephant to call Pangea home, and there couldn’t be a more fitting first resident than Portugal’s last circus elephant.”
The sanctuary spans 1,000 acres and hopes to house 20 to 35 elephants, but has limited occupancy at this stage while they add more barns and construct fences. The organization aims to provide a safe space for these wild animals to live out the rest of their days, without the stress of a long-haul journey to Africa.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
