Animal Welfare
Most of the elephants at Pinnawala are healthy and once attaining adulthood, will be sold or donated or retained for breeding. A few disabled elephants are given residential care. One tusker, Raja is blind, and one female, named Sama, lost her front right leg to a land mine.
Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage is was the subject of a 2010 report by the Born Free Foundation which calls into question the animal welfare at the orphanage.
Quality of care of elephants who are donated or sold away from Pinnawala has been a big public issue. In 2012 The Sri Lanka Environment Trust spoke out against authorities who continue to 'donate' tamed elephants to people who had 'poor' past records of taking care of animals. "There are enough cases to show that the authorities are releasing elephants from Pinnawala to the same group of people who don't take care of the animals." Though officials boast that the animals are under close surveillance, they don't do any monitoring once an elephant is released to a private owner.
Read more about this topic: Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage
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