Today I felt very
lucky to get the opportunity to meet some beautiful giants. I took a trip out
into the jungle in northern Thailand to an elephant rehab farm to learn more
about these amazing creatures and help out in any way I could.
The centre has been
open since 1995, I heard about it first by watching a doco on Animal Planet in
Vietnam and decided this was for me. Over my travels, and in daily life, I try
and be mindful of all other creatures. Whilst travelling South East Asia I have
experienced animal tourism exploitation is a real problem from tigers, to
monkeys to elephants, and it is probably nicer for most people to stay ignorant
and believe the animal is better off in someone else’s care but I would really
love it if I could share with you, for a moment, about the harsh reality and
one lady who is changing Thailand’s traditions for good.
This lady is Lek
Chailert. Lek means small in Thai but as many have said before she has a big
heart. She has dedicated her life to rescuing abused elephants to release on
her farm and re-trains them with love, trying to teach them their natural
habitat.
Before today I didn’t
really know much about this particular giant, which is said to be one of the
biggest to roam the earth today. But once spending some time hanging out it
quickly becomes apparent that they are both cheeky and loyal critters. They
like to be playful and test their limits but their human like instinct, obvious
passion and love for one another are truly breathtaking. Over the day we were
introduced to most of the 34 elephants on site and told the story of how they
came to be “in rehab” so to speak. Heartbreaking stories followed each other;
Jokia losing her baby while illegally working logging, after refusing to work, both
of her eyes were shot leaving her blind. Meadow hobbling past you with a very
visibly broken hip after forced mating (where the female is tied up so she can
not fight it when been impregnated). Hope, as a baby, been rescued after been
starved for a week. Chai- a recovering drug addict after been pumped full with
amphetamines in order to work harder.
It is now apparent to
me that working elephants are trained first with a brutal and abusive tradition
aimed at breaking the elephants spirits to leave them submissive and feeling
powerless to their owner. At just three or four years old they are taken to
what is called the “training crush” where they are to endure up to 7 days of
abuse and torture. The “crush” is a tiny wooden frame that encloses them, they
are tied down and stabbed, hit and starved until they give in to the owner. The
elephant often carries scars from this treatment into their adult life.
Working elephants use
to be more known as logging and labour workers. But logging was banned in
Thailand 1989 when they found the less trees the worse the monsoon would effect
them (other countries still do it illegally such a Thailand’s neighbour Burma).
After the ban was put in place around 80% of Asia’s elephants were domesticated,
meaning they could not survive in the wild, and jobless. They were killed, sold
or abandoned. Thai people believe that they owe the elephant for the rise of
their country but now with little forest left and no means to fend for
themselves in the country they helped build, they are dying. In the last centaury
95% of the elephant population has died and each year this number continues to
increase and yet nothing is done.
Nowdays almost all
domesticated elephants are put to work in the tourist arena. A manhout (owner)
with an elephant is likely to make 80% more money doing the rounds in cities
like Bangkok with a baby elephant. But these elephants are stressed, confused,
malnourished and abused. The other most largely used form of tourist exploitation
is the riding of the elephants. Almost all of these elephants have been through
the brutal training and are controlled by fear. Many manhouts claim to love and
care for their elephant but it is a means to make more money, and they are
again abused and over worked. Chained up all day and forced to carry naive
tourists around in the heat with little food to go on.
Lek wants the tourism
game to change; for people to come and visit elephants in a more wild and
beautiful environment. On the farm we got to see how 34 stranger elephants that
have come together to accept each other as family and form 5 tight herds. We
witnessed clear friendships initiated entirely by the elephants. And we saw the
sadness of loss. One was Mae Hong, she is around 80 years old and with a
visibly injured back from logging and tourist labour she has just recently lost
her one friend. Lek and her team buried Mae Hong’s friend on the farm and Mae
Hong visits that one spot, alone, for hours every single day. The kind nature and love these massive
animals possess blew me away. But its no walk in the park to keep them there,
which is why Lek has opened up the farm to volunteer workers, internships and
day trips. This helps fund the project and keep the elephant heaven alive.
Elephants eat 10% of
their body weight every single day. Try feeding a vegetarian for 18 hours a
day- then try feeding 34 of them. She has an onsite vet that also does rounds
for free around local villages making sure that the elephants are kept in good
health and a staff of 18 fulltime. Lek vows she will continue to devote her
life to elephants until the day she dies.
That’s the good news
to this story. The other good news is that this can all be helped. Of course
there is donations that can always be made or you can opt to sponsor an
elephant with a “fill an ele belly” campaign but there are smaller things you
can do too. Spread the word. If
you are ever coming to Asia or know someone who is tell them of these harsh
realities. There are other ways you can see these creatures at their best
without riding one down a tarseal road. In fact there is a training school that
has been recently set up for Manhouts with the hope to properly train the
owner; show them how to nourish and love their elephant, to form a respectful
relationship with each other instead of a relationship based on fear and power.
Visiting such a place or a farm like Lek’s is not only an amazing personal
experience but you are not supporting an industry that is literally killing
this species.
At the end of the day
we all want to ride an elephant or bottle feed a baby tiger but where will we
stop? Abusing enchanting wildlife, continuously sedating one of the worlds most
wild animals? The lengths that humans go for entertainment and selfish greed is
deeply concerning.
With all that said I
would like to leave you with a beautiful quote from Margret Mead;
“Never doubt that a
small group of committed and thoughtful citizens have the power to change the
world- indeed its all that ever has.”
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