Kristin Bauer van Straten Speaks Up for African Elephants

You may recognize actress Kristin Bauer van Straten from her roles on "True Blood" (Pam) and "Once Upon a Time" (Maleficent) and think she must be a tough person. Both roles call for a woman who isn't afraid of stepping over a few bodies to get what she wants. 

In real life, van Straten is just as determined, but she wants to leave no bodies in her wake, especially no dead elephants and rhinoceros. After spending time in Africa and learning from people on the ground about how dire the situation is for these animals, she is devoting her time, energy, and connections to making the world aware of the animal atrocities happening to elephant and rhino populations. She will introduce the Earth Focus special, "Illicit Ivory." She sat down with us to talk about the crisis and offer ways to help.

In an article for Huffington Post, you talked about the arrogance of most people in believing that all living beings are put here solely to be products for man's use. And man has killed so many, there are few elephants left.  Do you think it is possible to change this way of thinking? Do you think people will respond to seeing what will be lost if they don't change?

Kristin Bauer van Straten: I am doing the work that I am doing, expending the energy, for many reasons. I think the answer is yes, it is possible to change. I've seen it in individuals so I think it will spread to a wider audience. I think we are hardwired for compassion and I think we have compassion for more than just our species. If someone has a cat and loves it, that feeling can extend to other creatures. Whether we can succeed in saving this species, I don't know, but I still have to try. 

When I was in Kenya, I asked the head of the Northern Rangelands Trust, which controls over a million acres of conservancy and was started by Ian Craig, and they have most of the last of the rhino herds protected under armed guard on this property, what will happen if more people don't get involved to save elephants and rhinos? It is uncertain, he said. It is a race at the moment.

So if this message goes unheard, then this species is finished. We've seen the last of these species of animal?

KBvS: Yes. 

But we aren't too late yet?

KBvS: We're not too late. I really believe we can win this.

You've been to Africa and you've talked to the people on the front lines of protecting these animals. Can you describe the frustration at getting this message out and how dangerous their work is?

KBvS: These people are so sweet-natured. I felt like apologizing to them. The misconceptions about Africa are legion. It was so different than what we are told from here. I felt 100 percent safe. Safer than I do in Los Angeles. The food is unbelievable. I took a suitcase of food with me and never touched it. The people are so positive even though they face their own mortality and the ability to feed their own families. When I became frustrated and angry, they would cheer me up. 

They are so connected to wildlife and so connected to nature that they have this boost to their lives that we, living in America, have never had in our lifetimes. I would imagine the Native Americans had it. So it is hard for us to mourn something that is gone that you never experienced. When I was in Africa, I kept imagining that this must have been what America was like in the earliest days and we didn't value that, so now it is gone. How can you know something has value if you haven't experienced it? 

Africans are living within this world every day; they are some of the last indigenous people living in the last wild space on the planet. This is truly God's country, but there is a direction that man has gone that says, "We conquer...we own...we do whatever we want with the things that we find." That attitude has to change because there are more of us than anything else now. We live in a finite world and we need to examine other ways.

In that same article, you talk about the give and take -- an exchange rather than only taking. So now that we have conquered all there is on the planet, it is time to stop only taking and start giving back.

KBvS: I think so. I even feel appreciation in L.A. when I go on a hike, I think I'm so glad someone thought to make this park or this trail exist. In New York's Central Park, there must have been an enormous fight to save that open space in the middle of the city. It would be nice to start thinking about exchange, where you give something and you receive something. I'm not talking about a sale or talking about control or conquering.

You know, in America we can't turn on the TV without seeing images of Africa that implore us to help save them, give them shoes, or provide food or water. We're told they definitely need us. After I spent a month there, I thought, "We have this backwards." I got to know a guide there on my trip and he told me for weeks how wonderful his village was and he wanted to show it to me. So I went and I was looking at everyone covered in dirt and flies and no shoes. If I hadn't already spent so much time in the country, I probably would have been on the phone trying to call TOMS for shoes or other organizations for help. But what I really saw were happy people who live without our kind of stress. They were loving, community-based, sustainable, people. It reminded me of an Ellen DeGeneres joke about never seeing a pigmy on Paxil. And for some reason, we want to make them like us? When we go to help people, we want to make them like us. That's wrong. They have something to teach us and give us as much as we have to help them. That is really hard for us to understand.