Chantal Locke is a police officer at the Austin Police Department (APD). Her typical day entails driving around in a fancy police bike and pulling over speeding drivers on the local highways in Austin, USA.
However, on Thursday ( July 26, 2018), officer Locke took on a different task from her routine of pulling over drivers with various types of road traffic rules infrations. Locke signed up for the ‘Walk with Rangers’ program that will see her go through 10 days in the shoes of game rangers chasing down poachers in the Tsavo Naitonal Park in Kenya.
“They’re going up against people who don’t mind risking death for greed,” said Locke. “Someone compared it to a 10-day ride along with one of us on the street and that’s exactly what it is.”
Locke as part of APD motorcycle patrol team feels pumped up for the challenge ahead.
“When I was a child, my mom had a love for elephants. In fact, she would buy me elephants and always made them face towards the front door for good luck and prospetity.”
As Locke grew up, she became aware of the threats the elephants existence face from poachers. She began to do the little she could, right where she was. She ran the ‘Saving the Elephants 10k’ races held in New York City and has been sending donations regularly to foster three orphan elephants. Locke is about to meet these elephants.
“I’m way pumped and just realized that that’s Sunday, that’s only a couple days from now, so yeah. I’m about to jump out of my skin from excitement.”
Though in a way, Locke is going on a vacations, there will be no downtime to rest. As she will be walking 15 miles daily throughout the span of the 10 days of the program. For more information about Locke’s journey into the Tsavo and others like her, go to TsavoConservancy.com.