Tulsa’s Elephant Rescue exposed as possible hoax

Last year the Collegian ran a story over a seemingly legitimate elephant rescue organization ran by fellow Tulsan Phillip Hathaway. Hathaway founded ElephantRescue. net after discovering the horrific poaching practices plaguing Africa. This year the Collegian has been reached by a contact with concerns that this organization is in fact a hoax.
“In one well documented case, several families of elephants sought safety in a herd which grew to over 300,” Hathaway stated on ElephantRescue.net, “but they were am- bushed by poachers on horseback wielding machine guns and hand grenades. All of them – even the little babies – were unmercifully slaughtered.”
This was Hathaway’s self-claimed motivation for his transition from bystander to do-gooder. He noticed an atrocity and decided to do something about it. After this, he supposedly joined other elephant rescue organizations but according to his statement on elephantrescue.net “…none were except- ing [sic.] volunteers.”
This brings about the question, “What for- profit organizations turn away volunteers?” Volunteers are free, and usually passionate, laborers for their causes. He also neglects to specify which organizations sent him on his way. The results of his many apparent rejections was the creation ElephantRescue.net.
Another discrepancy in Phillip Hathaway’s work is his name. In fact, his legal name was unearthed to be John Stephen Maudin.
The fact that Hathaway chooses to equip himself with an alias, while still making public appearances, has writers at earth- bleed.com concerned. Earthbleed.com is a source of information on poaching practices and the prevention thereof.
Hathaway’s next mission of good faith started on change.org. The goal of the fundraiser was to gather 90,000 dollars in do- nations meant to rescue a forest elephant named Can from starvation in the Abidjan Zoo in Africa. As of 29 July, 2017, 507 people had donated a cumulative $20,428 for Can.
According to the European Elephant Group, an organization intent on bettering the lives of captive elephants, Can was at one point starving. More information on the European Elephant Group and their projects can be found at http://www.european- elephant-group.com. But in 2012, funds were raised to send an expert to the zoo, with all necessary materials to keep Can alive and healthy. Ingo Schmidinger, the expert, packed his bags and took a plane to Abidjan on 17 Nov. 2012. With him, a box containing an elephant specific first-aid kit, educational material and maintenance tools all intended to benefit and protect Can. Hathaway’s fundraiser began four years after Can had already received aid from a different organization.
Hathaway started another Change.org petition, but this time concerning a cull, which is the selective slaughter of wild animals. According to the associated page titled “90 Elephants Will Be Shot Unless We Move Them,” Johan Kruger, an executive in charge of overseeing operations in the Atherstone Nature Reserve, has requested a cull permit from the Republic of ‘South Africa. Hathaway is requesting signatures to put a stop to the culling practices, but there is a lack of reference material available to lend legitimacy to his request.
Atherstone Nature Reserve’s most recently released Elephant Management Plan (EMP) can be found at https://www.san- parks.org/parks/table_mountain/tourism/ activities.php. The document does indeed mention using culling as a means of control- ling population size and rate of growth but only as a last resort.
The many options to be attempted before resulting to the extreme include contraception, range manipulation, translocation and the introduction of elephants of differing species.
The EMP was released in 2009, and al- ready states culling is approved in necessary and extreme cases of population control. Hathaway is asking for signatures to remove Kruger’s plan, despite the already approved culling agreement published eight years ago.
Visit http://earthbleed.com/elephant-res- cue.html to learn more concerning Hathaway’s indiscretions and visit elephantrescue. net for more information about Hathaway and his mission statement.