The famous Nigel Mason Elephant Park in Bali, which hosted the famous animal parade, is on the verge of survival. The thirty rescued Sumatran elephants require $ 0.5 million a year for food and maintenance. In 2019, 6.3 million tourists visited Bali, and making that money was not a big problem. For the last 2 years, the island has been virtually closed and the elephants admired by Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Jean-Claude Van Damme, David Beckham and Julia Roberts were left out of work.
Nigel Mason has already spent almost all of his savings. “Bali survives on tourism, elephants survive on tourists. Without tourists, I don’t know what the future is like. It breaks my heart from what all this is leading to, ”the British Daily Mail quotes Mason as saying. On the island, not only elephants are starving, but also people – in such conditions, it is difficult to count on charity.
Nevertheless, the GoFundMe campaign raised a third of the required amount: “We need to raise about $ 30,000 a month just to keep looking after the herd,” says fundraiser Nick Healy and hopes, like everyone else in Bali, for early discovery of the island. But so far, the Balinese have only quarantine increased to 10 days and the airport is still empty.