The Elephant Project

For Kristina McKean creating plushie toys for kids as a means to saving elephants (and, increasingly, other threatened animals) isn’t a job, an occupation, or even a hobby. It’s a calling. 

On a trip to Thailand to celebrate her honeymoon, McKean witnessed baby elephants on the streets of Bangkok being exploited for money and came home devastated. Her frustration over animal abuse being sanctioned for entertainment was only compounded by the treatment of elephants in the domestic circus industry. Determined to do something about it, McKean spent years signing petitions, protesting circuses, and creating social media campaigns designed to spread awareness of the mistreatment of the majestic animals. 

“I felt like I really didn’t have a choice,” McKean explained. 

But those efforts weren’t having enough of an effect, and the feeling kept gnawing at her. Then one day she saw her daughter playing with a stuffed animal, and the light bulb went off. How about creating an elephant plushie that would not only raise funds through sales, but also create a bond with the animal for young kids early in life?

Thus was born The Elephant Project, the Montecito-based nonprofit McKean created in 2017. McKean employed her background in product development and design – which included a stint with The Gap corporation – to see the concept through. 

“I knew how to design a product and I just let my creativity and focus take over,” she said. “At first, it was just one stuffed animal girl elephant named Kiki, which I put out into the universe to see what would happen. I was overwhelmed by the response.” 

That included a brief article in the massively-circulated People magazine within just a few months, which catapulted the whole project McKean said. 

It wasn’t long before she added a boy stuffed elephant named Tembo, 100% of whose proceeds were directed to such organizations as Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand. Founded and run by world-renowned Asian elephant conservationist and Time magazine’s 2005 Asian Hero of the Year, Sangduen “Lek” Chailert,the park provides sanctuary for disabled, blind, and orphaned elephants that have often spent decades working in the logging and tourist industries. 

Fast forward to today and The Elephant Project’s plushie menagerie now includes a Baby Chaba, its first stuffed toy to be named after a living elephant; the plushie’s real-world, once-captive counterpart residing in Elephant Nature Park. Baby Chaba comes complete with a small children’s book that expands upon the story of the real animal, who was rescued alongside her mother by Chailert in August of 2021.

“It’s a coloring book to help the little kids feel even more of a connection,” McKean said. 

Over the years, the Project has had a major impact on the pachyderm world. 

“We’ve supported rescuing a ton of elephants,” she said without irony about the choice of quantifier. “I am mainly focused on elephants that have been abused or put in bad situations, so every one we help makes a difference.” 

But over time, McKean’s world has enlarged its embrace beyond elephants. 

“I’d also seen that there are lions being abused in all different parts of the world for entertainment purposes,” she said. “But then on 60 Minutes, I saw a group of women who were going down and negotiating with owners of the big cats in captivity and raising the money to get them out of captivity and into sanctuaries. I knew I had to support that, too. My drive for everything is seeing people doing the work on the ground to save these exploited animals. It’s a calling to help them.”

Hence, the birth of Oba, the 8” stuffed lion plushie doll made out of soft tan fabric and tastefully clad in a white jacket. More recently, McKean’s “family” has been joined by Lulu, a stuffed dog plushie whose creation was ordained by McKean hearing stories of dogs going to slaughter for meat in China, which tugged at her heart in the same way elephants had in Thailand those years ago. McKean also adopted two of the rescued dogs herself. 

“I’d been following a group of women who would go over there and take these dogs off of meat trucks,” she said. “They had a golden retriever and a doodle that were literally being tortured in a crate. We decided to take them both.”

The new plushie named Lulu is as adorable and cuddly as the others. And of course all the funds from sales go to that women-led nonprofit that actually does the rescuing. 

Obviously, it’s a much bigger problem than McKean and her supporters can solve on their own. But the numbers don’t deter her. 

“Of course there’s a million other animals that I want to save,” she said. “But I know what a long process it is to create a stuffed animal. There’s always a real sense of urgency to save these animals on the ground, so it’s hard sometimes to divert our attention and resources into creating something new.”

But she won’t give up. It is, after all, a calling. 

“It’s unexplainable. I don’t think strategically. I just know instinctively when I should do something. We’ve had a lot of success, but I think part of it is believing that everyone can make a difference and that your voice matters. All these collective efforts do help, and people can change the world.”

Locals have a chance to meet McKean on Wednesday, December 9 from 5-7 pm, when the five plushies and real life rescue dogs Bob and Pepe – as well as Pedro de la Cruz, who illustrates the coloring books – will be part of “The Giving Herd,” The Elephant Project’s annual gathering at Art & Soul, 1323 State Street. Guests will also have the chance to enjoy music and cocktails and meet adoptable pets – canines mostly, not elephants or lions – looking for forever homes.  

Visit www.theelephantproject.com