Famous Chiang Mai elephant attraction threatened with closure

[webfact]

Famous Chiang Mai elephant attraction threatened with closure

By THE NATION

 

 

The operator of a famous Chiang Mai elephant attraction says he will be forced to close down and get rid of his jumbos unless tourism recovers in the next three or four months.

 

Phutawan Elephant Camp’s owner said his revenue had fallen to zero after the attraction was shut under the Covid-19 lockdown, leaving him with bills of Bt160,000 for the care of each elephant.

 

Aomchit Boonthum said while his camp had now reopened under the third phase of lockdown easing, it had yet to receive any visits from tourists. The camp targets Chinese and European tourists, whose numbers have fallen to zero due to travel bans imposed to curb the contagion.

 

Previously, the camp earned Bt700,000 to Bt800,000 per month.

 

Aomchit said he had not laid off his mahouts, who are still taking care of 12 elephants.

 

He said that if the situation did not recover in the next three or four months, he would close the business and place his animals in the care of the National Elephant Institute.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30389047

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-06-04

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[Wildliferescue]

The tourist authority of Thailand has offered help between 3000 and 6000 baht per elephant per month, but the needed paperwork is as thick as the bible. He should apply as soon as possible. 

 

[Borzandy]

16 hours ago, webfact said:

Famous Chiang Mai elephant attraction threatened with closure

Why ? It is not a Educational science attractions ? I'm surprised.

[ChipButty]

You dont need an herd of elephants breaking out looking for food

[jak2002003]

How about do the right thing and put the elephants back in the jungle at a national park. All these places should close down...they are basically elephant torture and slavery parks. 

[thaibeachlovers]

19 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

How about do the right thing and put the elephants back in the jungle at a national park. All these places should close down...they are basically elephant torture and slavery parks. 

Elephants are destructive of their environments and may not even be able to survive outside captivity without raiding farms. National parks don't have elephant proof fences around them.

[ChipButty]

I read the other day 1 got shot who had escaped and died a couple of days later it was in an English new paper 

[ChakaKhan]

2 hours ago, ChipButty said:

You dont need an herd of elephants breaking out looking for food

Almost as bad as a chinese group at a seafood buffet!!!    ????

[BritManToo]

2 hours ago, jak2002003 said:

How about do the right thing and put the elephants back in the jungle at a national park. All these places should close down...they are basically elephant torture and slavery parks. 

They are domestic animals, same as horses, buffalo, cats and dogs.

Most of the elephants I seem fairly happy with the treatment, food and health care they receive.

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by BritManToo

[hotchilli]

20 hours ago, webfact said:

The operator of a famous Chiang Mai elephant attraction says he will be forced to close down and get rid of his jumbos unless tourism recovers in the next three or four months.

Start the elephant relocation now then, you're stuffed this year.

[Moonlover]

3 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Elephants are destructive of their environments

That's a pretty rich statement, coming from a human being!

[Moonlover]

4 hours ago, jak2002003 said:

How about do the right thing and put the elephants back in the jungle at a national park. All these places should close down...they are basically elephant torture and slavery parks. 

This would not be feasible. These elephants are mostly 'retired' working elephants who have never lived in the wild and, I believe some orphans as well. Young elephants spend many years with their mothers and their extended family learning how to survive. Without that education they wouldn't have a clue how to do so.

[baansgr]

Too much to type but do the maths in your head its more phoney figures plucked out the sky, they just don't add up

[Moonlover]

13 minutes ago, baansgr said:

Too much to type but do the maths in your head its more phoney figures plucked out the sky, they just don't add up

Well if you can't be bothered to add some proof to your comment, I can't be bothered to do it for you!

[holy cow cm]

2 hours ago, ChakaKhan said:

Almost as bad as a chinese group at a seafood buffet!!!    ????

Sorry, but nothing is that bad. Not even piranhas feasting on a cow.

[Burma Bill]

7 hours ago, jak2002003 said:

How about do the right thing and put the elephants back in the jungle at a national park. All these places should close down...they are basically elephant torture and slavery parks. 

Not necessarily. I (as a biologist) have visited elephant camps in Chiang Mai and Lampang Provinces (also in Laos) and those that I visited were properly organised and well run establishments - one even had its own hospital for treating it's sick elephants and others brought from outside (forests, streets etc.) Many of the younger elephants are born within the camps under supervised breeding programs and if you would put them out into the jungle they would not survive. Each mahout is assigned an elephant for life and I can assure you they do not treat them as slaves. Yes, I agree some of the "tricks" can be upsetting to some people but log pulling/pushing is natural to the older elephants who used to perform this work before Thailand banned logging in 1989.

 

Elephants in camp near Lampang:-

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by Burma Bill
additional information

[chainarong]

8 hours ago, jak2002003 said:

How about do the right thing and put the elephants back in the jungle at a national park. All these places should close down...they are basically elephant torture and slavery parks. 

The problem lies with the elephant, its so domesticated that it would struggle in the wild, they should be re-homed , there's a few parks you can shoot Elephants with camera's from special made places, as they roam around.

[jak2002003]

These elephants are not domesticated like cats and dogs. They are wild animals mostly 1st or 2nd generation from being taken from the wild. 

 

Domestication takes hundreds and thousands of generations. For example a cow is nothing like the wild ancestor and a dog is nothing like a wild wolf.

 

These elephants would easily survive in the wild. They eat vegetation and drink water. They have no natural predators. They would be surrounded by food. 

 

The biologist poster saying the are treated well in Chiang Mai...needs to do a little more research. See how they are kept on short chains for hours a day when not on show. See how the babies are often not born at the camps but smuggled  from over the border having been captured in the wild. And all baby elephants are pulled from their mothers, causing great distress, and 'broken' by being tortured for days on end in a crush trap. 

[Burma Bill]

48 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

These elephants are not domesticated like cats and dogs. They are wild animals mostly 1st or 2nd generation from being taken from the wild. 

 

Domestication takes hundreds and thousands of generations. For example a cow is nothing like the wild ancestor and a dog is nothing like a wild wolf.

 

These elephants would easily survive in the wild. They eat vegetation and drink water. They have no natural predators. They would be surrounded by food. 

 

The biologist poster saying the are treated well in Chiang Mai...needs to do a little more research. See how they are kept on short chains for hours a day when not on show. See how the babies are often not born at the camps but smuggled  from over the border having been captured in the wild. And all baby elephants are pulled from their mothers, causing great distress, and 'broken' by being tortured for days on end in a crush trap. 

 

Thank you for your comments and I personally think I do not need to do more research other than in relation to your quote:-

 

"And all baby elephants are pulled from their mothers, causing great distress, and 'broken' by being tortured for days on end in a crush trap"

 

Please, if you have any recent documentary evidence (including photographs) of this cruelty within Thailand and it's registered elephant camps I would be most grateful.  

[BritManToo]

3 hours ago, jak2002003 said:

The biologist poster saying the are treated well in Chiang Mai...needs to do a little more research. See how they are kept on short chains for hours a day when not on show. See how the babies are often not born at the camps but smuggled  from over the border having been captured in the wild. And all baby elephants are pulled from their mothers, causing great distress, and 'broken' by being tortured for days on end in a crush trap. 

I often walk though the elephant camps around Chiang Mai.

Plenty of mothers and babies to be seen.

I've never noticed any distress.

[Yorkshire Tea]

3 hours ago, jak2002003 said:

 

 

These elephants would easily survive in the wild. They eat vegetation and drink water. They have no natural predators. They would be surrounded by food. 

 

 

 

Not much "wild" left in Thailand.  They would come into conflict with local residents / farmers.  Only one winner ????

[billd766]

On 6/5/2020 at 7:27 AM, jak2002003 said:

How about do the right thing and put the elephants back in the jungle at a national park. All these places should close down...they are basically elephant torture and slavery parks. 

 

On 6/5/2020 at 7:48 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

Elephants are destructive of their environments and may not even be able to survive outside captivity without raiding farms. National parks don't have elephant proof fences around them.

https://www.thainationalparks.com/mae-wong-national-park

 

https://www.travelfish.org/sight_profile/thailand/northern_thailand/kamphaeng_phet/kamphaeng_phet/1853

 

Well said tbl. We back onto the Mae Wong national park and it has an area of 894 sq/km. Can you imagine the cost to elephant proof the fencing?

 

[Trujillo]

Only took five posts to go to the "animal torture and slavery" BS.

Close all zoos! Stop selling birds and tropical fish! Turn out your dogs and cats to run free!!!!

 

Morons. 

[jak2002003]

2 hours ago, Trujillo said:

Only took five posts to go to the "animal torture and slavery" BS.

Close all zoos! Stop selling birds and tropical fish! Turn out your dogs and cats to run free!!!!

 

Morons. 

Not at all. You are inshowing your ignorance if your can't see the difference between domesticated pets and wild animals being abused. 

 

Are you really comfortable seeing wild animals chained up, stabbed with metal hooks and yelled at, and forced to stupid tricks to make money for tourists...or probably you just don't care. 

Edited June 7, 2020 by jak2002003

[billd766]

15 hours ago, Trujillo said:

Only took five posts to go to the "animal torture and slavery" BS.

Close all zoos! Stop selling birds and tropical fish! Turn out your dogs and cats to run free!!!!

 

Morons. 

I have 2 cats and 4 kittens and no dogs. They are all outside cats and not allowed inside at all.

 

The oldest is a great grandmother I think, the second oldest won't go near anybody and a couple of the kittens are becoming people friendly now, the other 2 will either get there or not.

[heybruce]

On 6/7/2020 at 7:03 AM, Yorkshire Tea said:

 

Not much "wild" left in Thailand.  They would come into conflict with local residents / farmers.  Only one winner ????

Combine this with the fact that these animals have no fear of humans and expect to be fed by them.  If released into the wild they will wander into farms and villages in search of food, and, if panicked by people trying to scare them away, possibly do great damage and injury.

[BritManToo]

On 6/7/2020 at 10:46 PM, jak2002003 said:

Not at all. You are inshowing your ignorance if your can't see the difference between domesticated pets and wild animals being abused. 

 

Are you really comfortable seeing wild animals chained up, stabbed with metal hooks and yelled at, and forced to stupid tricks to make money for tourists...or probably you just don't care. 

I don't care.

You can eat this animal but not this one, you can keep this animal as a pet but not this one.

Just silly emotional projections from foolish people.

[Trujillo]

I have a friend who lives in a village that is in the area of Chachoengsao and her mother had a motorbike accident recently. How did that happen, you ask? A wild elephant came out of the jungle and ran her off the road (this is "natural play/tricks from these animals). On occasion, these wild elephants will come into the village and ransack the gardens and push over some basic structures (having fun, one can assume since it has no benefit to the animals other than elephant play). 

 

What do you think would happen with a bunch of domesticated elephants let loose in the wild? They would immediately search out human habitation for food, and interactions. Not a good idea. 

 

The idea that elephant camps routinely engage in torture is archaic. I've been to several elephant camps and have never seen any elephants with stab wounds, for starters. Elephant camps are under scrutiny these days from zealous animal rights activists and they know that the kinds of treatments that may have been standard in the past no longer applies. 

 

Chained? Yes, sometimes animals are chained. Have you ever put your dog on a leash? Chained up? In a cage? Oh, right, there is a difference between domesticated animals and "wild" animals. So it's not about the animal rights, it's about the nature of the individual animal. It's okay to stun a cow into death with a captive bolt gun, but definitely not okay to put an elephant (raised from birth in captivity) on a chain for a while. 

 

By the way, shouldn't we start reparations for dogs as we are guilty of domesticating them some 30,000-odd years ago? They were wild until we interfered. Please let us correct our errors for we have sinned. 

 

[jak2002003]

15 hours ago, Trujillo said:

I have a friend who lives in a village that is in the area of Chachoengsao and her mother had a motorbike accident recently. How did that happen, you ask? A wild elephant came out of the jungle and ran her off the road (this is "natural play/tricks from these animals). On occasion, these wild elephants will come into the village and ransack the gardens and push over some basic structures (having fun, one can assume since it has no benefit to the animals other than elephant play). 

 

What do you think would happen with a bunch of domesticated elephants let loose in the wild? They would immediately search out human habitation for food, and interactions. Not a good idea. 

 

The idea that elephant camps routinely engage in torture is archaic. I've been to several elephant camps and have never seen any elephants with stab wounds, for starters. Elephant camps are under scrutiny these days from zealous animal rights activists and they know that the kinds of treatments that may have been standard in the past no longer applies. 

 

Chained? Yes, sometimes animals are chained. Have you ever put your dog on a leash? Chained up? In a cage? Oh, right, there is a difference between domesticated animals and "wild" animals. So it's not about the animal rights, it's about the nature of the individual animal. It's okay to stun a cow into death with a captive bolt gun, but definitely not okay to put an elephant (raised from birth in captivity) on a chain for a while. 

 

By the way, shouldn't we start reparations for dogs as we are guilty of domesticating them some 30,000-odd years ago? They were wild until we interfered. Please let us correct our errors for we have sinned. 

 

Such ignorance..

 

We never chained up dogs and cats to domesticate them. We never tortured wolf Cuba or wild cats to break their spirit and make them docile. They were not endanger species used to make money for entertainment.

 

Dogs and cats evolved over thousands of years alongside humans in a symbiotic relationship to gradually become domesticated. 

 

Sorry, but your argument is flawed. 

 

It makes interesting reading if you are interested in the domestication of our domestic pets and farm animals.....and there is zero parallel with the way they are treating wild elephants in the entertainment industry.

[jak2002003]

17 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I don't care.

You can eat this animal but not this one, you can keep this animal as a pet but not this one.

Just silly emotional projections from foolish people.

So you don't care. So why are you commenting on or even reading this thread. And, why now should anyone be interested in your opinion on a subject you don't care about and have no knowledge about?

 

I can only assume your comments on this threat are meant to offend or antagonise other posters.