Raised by the Zoo

ected her two cubs, a male and a female. They came to my house in an incubator and s

who think that it is okay to use force and inflict pain to control an elephant, to show it that they are ‘the boss’.

contact where it belongs, in history,

20 years since Dublin Zoo left free contact

Protected contact – where elephants and humans never share the same space

When you separate a creature with an emotional intelligence similar to ours from its family and from other elephants, huge trauma ensues.

boy from Dublin’s inner city who found himself inspired by elephants

Animals that our family, and other keepers, reared at home regularly appeared in newspapers, on TV shows and at promotional events.

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In 1987, after a five-year pause, the zoo began breeding lions again. Unfortunately, lioness Marie rejected her two cubs, a male and a female. They came to my house in an incubator and soon graduated to a playpen in the kitchen, and then to kennels beside Dino. A public competition named them Socrates and Sheeba, and before the year ended they had both moved on to UK safari parks.

There was a big storm in the papers