First of all I'll give Jumbo back her name. She was renamed to help put her past away, she became Mila the captive of the RSPCA and the trophy of Hans Kriek from an animal's rights group who along with others hounded the ex circus elephant into captivity with the unshakeable belief that she was better in their care than that of her former owner Tony Ratcliffe.
Tony is of another time, not that far away, a showman, a big man with a big heart and friend of Jumbo for 30 years. It is said even by 'opponents' of Tony that he is the only man that can handle the african elephant taking her to the circus ring unshackled and unbowed for 10s of thousand of Kiwi children to enjoy. Tony had dealt with elephants for 40 years, had even been a zoo keeper.
By all accounts Hans Krieks mob were offended beyond all reason that Jumbo could be a circus elephant to be enjoyed by crowds that wanted to see her. It didn't fit with their ideals of a perfect world where an old man and a elephant could co-exist on their own terms. An elephant which showed no aggression and upon which Tony could turn his back to Jumbo and stand under her head in an ultimate expression of his faith in the elephant that he toured the country with. The objectors had many reasons to complain in their minds, Tony was a dinosaur from another age and Jumbo needed her 'freedom.' It doesn't seem that at any point Jumbo's captors could allow the possibility that Jumbo and the old zoo keeper were one, and in reliance of one another. The captors couldn't see or think of that, nor could they consider what they would do once that had been 'successful' in splitting the old team up.
Split them they did, after what seems more like a modern day hounding Tony bowed his head and said enough. What followed wasn't an escape for Jumbo into freedom but rather a long mourning for the man that so trusted and loved her. She first grazed in paddocks and then went to the Franklin zoo and ultimately into the care of Helen Schofield who ran, by all accounts, under extreme financial pressure, a home for animals and birds. I don't know accurate it is, but my own observations of the zoo when I visited there a month or so ago, was that it was run down. I'll just make that clear, the zoo was struggling financially, Bob Kerridge and Hans Kriek, along with their objections to Tony Ratcliffe, had effectively constructed a new life for Jumbo where her behaviour deteriorated, and where one could say, she perhaps pined for the gruff old bastard who'd been her mate for decades.
It seems the rift was effectively a rejection of Tony to the point that was more important that the elephants welfare. Jumbo, renamed by then, was cared for by specialists for a time until money got tight. I don't know how Hans Kriek or Bob Kerridge viewed that situation or what they did about it, but it was clear one view could be that they passed the 'problem' along to someone that couldn't cope. Below all of this however, resides that the bitterness toward Tony presided somewhere near the top.
Two days ago Jumbo killed Helen Schofield, shortly after a talk in which she admitted that the elephants behaviour had continued to deteriorate, expressing how Jumbo was better off than in her former life where to all or most, she appeared happy. One of the first to the Zoo was the old trainer, but he wasn't allow entry. Soon Hans Kriek spoke out against him, along with the RSPCA. They reiterated the dream that it was hoped, money permitting, Jumbo would be sent to an idyllic life in America where only the fully informed could appreciate she'd be 'happy.' They seemed removed from the reality that Jumbo had been twice already 'moved' and that something was missing her in life that America had no guarantee of providing.
Could it be simply, that Jumbo is broken hearted. That she misses an old man who still speaks of his love for her and that for all things, qualities and feelings, we know animals do possess that the truth is looking at us through sad eyes and bewilderment.
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