TCF Goes International!
Elke worked as a wilderness guide in British Columbia during her summers
Intern Elke Tukker Joins the TCF Team for the Summer
Meet Elke Tukker, TCF’s international intern! Elke is an undergraduate student from The Netherlands majoring in History. She has spent the past year at the University of Washington in Seattle studying environmental sciences, resource management, and wildlife studies.
Over the past few years, Elke has developed a deep interest in not only wild horses and burros, but all other animals as well. These interests have driven her to become a wilderness guide in Canada, where she developed a relationship with her first wild horse, Cheyenne. Cheyenne was traumatized by a series of unfortunate events in her past, including a round-up. Together, she and Elke have slowly built up a little bit of trust and Cheyenne has started to share parts of her wild self.
Cheyenne, Elke’s wild mare, lives on the ranch in B.C. where they first met.
After this intimate experience, touched by Cheyenne’s wildness and the spirit of these amazing animals, Elke decided to dedicate her time to preserving the freedom of all wildlife, a mission very much aligned with that of TCF. She joined The Cloud Foundation team in April and has been an amazing asset in all of our work. Elke has lent her expertise and scientific background to our work in drafting comments on The Path Forward, the disastrous new “multi-stakeholder management plan” as well as assisting with our response to BLM’s horrendous ovariectomy experiments.
In May, Elke experienced the Pryor Mountains for the first time. After years of reading and learning about these wild horses, and after her experience with Cheyenne, she was thrilled to see wild horses in a truly wild environment. Although a little overwhelmed by all the names of the Pryor Mustangs, it was as if everything clicked. “This is how it should be,'' she told Ginger and Dana during the trip. Humbled by being with the horses in their environment, and very aware that humans have no right to interfere, she gained even more respect for these magnificent animals. Her motivation not to use, harm or exploit animals grows every day as she now helps TCF in our fight to save Wild Horses and Burros.