National Elephant Appreciation Day is on September 22ndth. he herd of Asian Elephant statues in front of the Gallery Dana Bay has grown in anticipation of National Elephant Appreciation Daysome of the elephant statues typically on display in Dana Point will migrate to the Santa Monica Art Museum

“These guys saw the horrible situation and decided to raise funds for veterinary research and care to get her a prosthetic leg,” Gallery Dana Bay owner Dana Yarger said. “It took four years, and she kept growing and growing and growing. She’s 16 now, maybe almost 17, fully grown, successful with a prosthetic leg, and she should live to her normal age of 55 or so.”

Yarger added that when the two men started the project, “many people were more commonly aware of the crisis of the African elephant slaughtered for ivory.”

“But the Asian elephant is in crisis because of the growth of civilization, roads, plantations, so their existence in the wild is challenged to the point they may be extinct in two generations,” according to Yarger.

The elephants on display in front of the gallery are considered “life-size” because they are the same size as the two-year-old elephant that sparked the Elephant Parade organization.