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Elephants Find Recession Work Washing Cars

Car Wash Promises Not To Get Cars Clean

People from all around Oregon and even overseas are flocking to a car wash in Winston, Ore., one that promises not to clean cars.

The Wildlife Safari Web site makes a guarantee that their car wash won't clean a car. But the draw of the car wash isn't how clean the car is though, it's who -- or what -- is doing the cleaning: elephants.

Wildlife Safari was looking to make some more money in the down economy, so trainers there decided to teach a new skill to their three African elephants: Tiki, Alice and George.

They taught the elephants, who could already paint, to wash cars. They took to it immediately.

"What's really cool with our elephants is what started this whole thing, and that's that they love to play in water. They just love to have fun themselves," said Dan Van Slyke, executive director at the park.

Trainers said the elephants basically treat the car wash as a long game. If they do get bored, the trainers call in another elephant to take over.

Van Slyke said he attributes a big spike in summer traffic to the elephant car wash and people looking to stay local, but still have fun.

"The reason that there's been such a spike this summer during this bad economic time, is people still want to recreate. Still kind of want to get away from problems. But they want it affordable and they want to feel that they're actually investing in something that has a value," said Van Slyke.

Carol Matthews, the elephants' on-the-job supervisor, said she's seen many people come back for another wash despite the fact they guarantee cars won't get clean.

"They've definitely drawn a lot of people into park. In fact that we've had lots of people come back and do it again and again cause they had to bring their friends and families," said Matthews.

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