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Meet Miracle Elephant-Attack Survivor Biggie Shoko
An early-morning walk to work became a fight for survival when an elephant bull knocked Biggie Shoko to the ground and trampled him near Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park.
hospital
A walk to work becomes a fight for life
It was early morning when Biggie Shoko left home for work, walking through the wild and peaceful surroundings that tourists from around the world pay to experience.
Suddenly, a powerful elephant swept him off the ground with its trunk and slammed him onto the hard earth. Acting on instinct, the huge animal began trampling him as his cries rang out.
“As the huge elephant bull was stomping on me, I started crying and screaming: ‘Hey, elephant, leave me alone. I want to work for my family.’ Then the bull left me alone.”
“I was attacked by an elephant while walking to work early in the morning,” Shoko said. “Passers-by rushed me to Hwange Hospital, where I spent days. I still do not know how I survived that elephant attack, and I live in fear that the bull might strike again.”
In an interview, Shoko’s wife and daughter said they were relieved that he had survived, recovered from his injuries and returned to work. Life would have been extremely difficult without him, the family’s only breadwinner.
recovered in hospital
The daily cost of coexistence
Shoko was fortunate to survive. Other elephant-attack victims are killed, leaving behind widows and orphans. Some sustain injuries that permanently disable them, making it impossible to care for themselves and their families.
In other cases, elephants wipe out entire crop fields and leave households facing hunger. This is the daily reality for African communities that share land with elephants.
Hwange National Park under pressure
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Letter To the Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China
Following letter was sent to the Prime Minister of China. A copy of the letter in PDF format is at the end of the page.
October 30, 2018
The Honorable Li Keqiang
Prime Minister of China
People’s Republic of China
Beijing, CHINA
Dear Premier Li :
The Ivory Education Institute strongly applauds the People’s Republic of China’s decision to permit its hospitals to trade in domestically-raised tiger bones and rhino horn.
While many Western animal rights groups will react automatically and negatively to this initiative because it will confuse their one-size-fits-all approach to wildlife conservation, students of governance will recognize the carefully-crafted policy that China has forged.
From our perspective, you have done it exactly right. Now it is up to the farmers and their support groups in Southern Africa to put pressure on their individual governments to join China in seeking a change in CITES regulations to reflect this new policy.
As an organization fully committed to achieving a similar, carefully calibrated and properly controlled market for ivory, I hope you will be able to turn your attention to saving elephants suffering in overpopulated herds in Southern Africa.
I look forward to working with your delegates to the CITES Conference of the Parties in May-2019 on this and other questions.
Sincerely
Godfrey Harris
Managing Director