Maine Vet Gives Old Elephants New Hope

(NECN: Marnie MacLean) - In the morning, Dr. Jim Laurita walks out of his farmhouse in Hope, Maine and heads to the barn to feed the animals.

On Friday's breakfast menu -- elephant chow.

Opal and Rosie are retired circus elephants who will spend their golden years in mid-coast Maine. They arrived just a few days ago from Oklahoma.

"They've had a long, hard life and now to really be able to give them the Cadillac treatment," Dr. Laurita says.

Dr. Laurita, a veterinarian, met both elephants back in 1978 when he worked for a circus.

Even when he left to pursue other endeavors, he kept track of the girls. Knowing they were getting older and suffered from various injuries, he began an effort to bring them to his property in Maine.

The out-of-the-box idea was met with some skepticism.

He persevered, and when we first visited a year ago, construction was just underway on the barn. Now, it's ready to provide Rosie and Opal with high end physical therapy.

The therapy will start once the elephants are acclimated to their new home.

"Any time you put two girls together, you gotta wonder how that will work out," Dr. Laurita says laughing.

Dr. Laurita says so far, they are getting along beautifully. Rosie is a bit needy, but Opal is sweet and tolerant and happy to greet new visitors.

Which leads to the other part of Dr. Laurita's mission: Giving people in rural Maine the chance to interact with elephants, learn about them and join the effort to save them.

"Elephants are being wiped out in sub-Saharan Africa and crowded out in Asia and we want to participate in the movement to try and stop that," he says.

The community of Hope is invested too. Neil Delehey has received special training to work with the elephants.

"It's good to be part of something like that, bigger than me, you, everything else -- it's neat," he says.

It's also expensive. Hope Elephants continues to raise money, and the next project is an education center for children.

No more big top, no three rings, but here, Rosie and Opal will always be the "Maine" attraction.

For more information about the elephants in Hope, click here.