HOHENWALD, Tennessee (CNN) -- A pair of African elephants tramps through lush vegetation, stopping to scoop dust with their trunks and toss it onto their backs for protection from the summer sun. Tarra, who was a year old when Buckley met her, was the inspiration for The Elephant Sanctuary. Meanwhile, two others submerge their massive forms to splash and dip in the waters of a muddy pond. It's a scene that could have been pulled from a nature documentary. But it takes place in an unlikely spot: a 2,700-acre sanctuary in rural Tennessee. It's not where nature intended the animals to be, roaming free in the vast expanses of subtropical Africa and Asia.
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The Elephant Sanctuary takes in old, injured, abused animals
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2,700-acre facility is largest of its kind in the United States
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Site closed to the public to make elephants' lives closer to in the wild
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Donations have always exceeded needs, but economy not keeping up this year
Buckley
"We consider all of these elephants to be rescue elephants, because they are taken out of that environment that is not healthy for them," said @placeholder, co-founder of the Elephant Sanctuary.
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Twenty-four elephants, most of them sick, old or abused, have lived at the sanctuary; it is currently home to 15 @placeholder and Asian elephants.
Buckley
But as the years passed and the relationship between animal and trainer strengthened, @placeholder came to believe that captivity, particularly in a traveling circus, was no life for an elephant.