If charities were like apparel, the tag on Perry and Carolyn Butler's favorite cause would read "XXXXX Large." Elephant-sized, in fact.

To support the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation to the tune of $1,000-a-month for the Asian pachyderms of Thailand -- and more important, to support the families of their caretakers (mahouts) -- Perry contributes all of the proceeds from 40 cases of a premium boutique cabernet blend he had produced at his Juslyn Winery. Carolyn's contribution comes from 60 pairs of Italian-styled designer shoes at her Footcandy women's footwear shop in downtown St. Helena.

The Butlers, both of whom were born in London, are globetrotters.

"We were in Bangkok on a vacation and (went) out to one of the temples with our guide," Perry recalled. "Then we saw this mother elephant and her baby going through traffic, just weaving in and out between the cars and we could not believe it. It was a busy street.

"So, I said to the guide, 'What's going on?' and he said, 'It's really quite sad because the Thai government's logging industry peaked about two years ago and put 2,000 elephants out of work," he said. "They basically said 'no more logging and goodbye.'

"So, the elephants had no work and the people who owned the elephants had no money."

What do you do with 2,000 unemployed elephants? Some went to villages where tourists would pay to have their pictures taken sitting astride them. The idea was that elephant owners would live off the meager amount tourists paid to buy sugar cane and bananas to feed to the elephants.

"Because they like alcohol, one (caretaker) kept his elephant drunk to raise money. People would pay to see him," Butler said. "The elephant actually became an alcoholic. After seeing one of the performances, the Thai government confiscated the elephant and put him in a special camp, which was basically like detox.

"The elephants went around the country just so they could be fed. But then they started to get sick and things started to get serious because they didn't have any veterinarians."

At that point, Perry continued, the Thai government stepped in and created an account to aid the elephants and the families of the caretakers. But it was far from enough. The Thai private sector, including resort hotels, provided some aid that gave the families shelter and sustenance.

The funding that the Butlers contribute to aid the elephants, their mahouts and their families began 10 months ago after a close encounter with a group of the behemoths at a camp. At the time, neither had seen an elephant outside of a circus or zoo.

"The guide said, 'Go and feed them; they're not going to hurt you,' but it was scary at first when you look at their size," said Perry. "Then when we got in there to feed them we saw how gentle they were."

"Amazing," is the word the Butlers use most frequently in describing the intelligence of elephants.

"A guide's glasses fell off and onto the ground while we were there and the elephant picked them up with his trunk and put them right there," Perry Butler said, pointing to his forehead. "I was riding one and (because) he thought I wasn't quite stable he put his ears back to hold me and make sure I was sitting up."

There are several stories about how elephants care for each other. One is provided by Lamchok (which means "good luck" in Thai), the elephant owned by the Butlers. A young female, Lamchok has taken on the role of surrogate "mum" to an infant elephant rejected by its biological mother.

"Everywhere Lamchok goes, the baby goes," said Perry with a smile.

In the time the Butlers have supported the elephant program, they have provided enough funding to support the full care of Lamchok and the baby and the human family caring for them, including education costs for a boy named Tony and a salary for the mahout-father. They are now trying to raise enough more to bring three more elephants into camp.

"The idea is continue for a time to keep the elephants off the streets," Butler said. "We just couldn't bear to see the poor things walking around the roads getting hit by cars and the families taking care of them living like roving gypsies. We just feel as a lot of people do and have gotten more and more involved with this."