His feet shackled with spiked chains, an elephant named Raju has spent 50 years being held captive, beaten and abused. The Indian elephant survived off of handouts from tourists and sometimes would eat plastic and paper garbage to fill his tummy.
But Raju was finally freed from his misery thanks to Wildlife SOS. They launched a daring midnight rescue operation to free the elephant. The rescue team confronted Raju’s owner and refused to back down. As they stood their ground, Raju began to cry, as if he sensed a change was finally coming.
The charity’s U.K. spokeswoman Pooja Binepal said the team were shocked to see tears roll down his face during the rescue. She added: “It was so incredibly emotional for all of us. We knew in our hearts he realised he was being freed.”
Here’s a video of the moment Raju was freed from his chains for the first time in his life!
And this video tell’s Raju’s full, heartbreaking story.
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