The death of baby Max!

There aren’t only animals and people on our beautiful planet, no there are also the monsters. They look human and for the most part behave like a human, but behind the façade lies a great ugliness. 

I couldn't keep my tears from falling, while writing this heartbreaking story of, Max! 

Gary Roberts, an American pilot who works in Chad, as a rescuer, found to his dismay that a group of a hundred elephants were slaughtered ruthless by poachers on the border between Chad and Cameroon. He did everything to save the only survivor, a nine-month old baby elephant that he named Max.

Telephone call!

In March 2013, Gary Roberts received a disturbing call. There were rumors of a massacre of a herd of elephants, and they asked him if he could fly to check out the situation. When Gary flew over the border between Chad and Cameroon with his Cessna, he stomach turned by what he saw.

Hundred skulls!

"It was awful seeing merely remnants and bones." Gary told the BBC about the horrors he encountered last year. Everywhere there were large pools of blood and carcasses scattered over several kilometers. He counted at least a hundred skulls. His stomach turned over. The poachers had almost certainly used machine guns to kill the herd of elephants. Seeing the genocide (because that’s what it was IMHO) he gave all the information to the authorities and flew back home.

Second phone call!

Two days later he was called again they told him that an elephant baby had survived the massacre the horror. The Roberts family had in the past often cared for animals-orphans. So he returned to the area looking for the baby.

Now the heartbreaking starts!

He found the animal of an estimated nine months to a tree tied with a rope. The calf was anxious, angry and grieving over the loss of his family. The animal had been given cow's milk from some villagers. With good intentions, but cow's milk is toxic to elephants. The rope had caused wounds to his neck that started to infect. During his short stay in the village children additionally pelted him with stones.

Panic!

The Roberts couple decided then and there to rescue the elephant baby. Even if that meant it had to be shipped in tiny plane. With a truck, the fatherless, the meanwhile baptized Max, was brought to the plane where the Roberts couple was waiting. The baby elephant barely fitted the small Cessna, which can carry up to four people, a risky operation, done by true heroes.

When Max, (160 pounds) would panic, the small plane would become uncontrollable. Yet the weakened animal just scanned off the cockpit playfully with his trunk.

 Exhaustion!

Once home the baby elephant fully collapsed. He was day and night cared for by Gary and Wendy. But despite all their efforts and dedication Max didn’t make it. After ten days Max died.

"The trauma of the massacre was too much for little Max," Roberts said with a deep sigh. Perhaps his death was also caused by cow's milk, the only merciful act he had received of the villagers, during his short life!

Gary Roberts conducted the rescue mission early last year, but the extraordinary images of the flight are only now surfacing. The BBC conducted a conversation with Gary.