My Dilema With Thai Elephants

[radioguy1450]

Coming to Thailand for a visit soon and I believe there are elephant rides there. Love elephants and have never seen one in person.

But are the elephants treated humanely? If I pay for an elephant ride am I supporting someone who beats the animal when I am not around or are the elephants treated well and happy in captivity?

Hoping to kiss an elephant without guilt.

[DivinGuy]

Coming to Thailand for a visit soon and I believe there are elephant rides there. Love elephants and have never seen one in person.

But are the elephants treated humanely? If I pay for an elephant ride am I supporting someone who beats the animal when I am not around or are the elephants treated well and happy in captivity?

Hoping to kiss an elephant without guilt.

If you will be near Chiang Mai, you could visit the "Elephant Nature Park". You can't ride elephants there, but you can feed and wash them and take them for a walk.

[Torv]

I think you'd be okay at a more established park. Chiang Mai, Surin are all elephants haven.

[johnnymoretti]

By a recent traveler:

"Elephant Abuse (Trekking w/ BMP Residence, Chiang Mai)

I have just returned to Canada from a 4 week backpacking trip in Thailand. As with most backpackers who visit Thailand, part of my trip entailed a 3-4 day trek in Chiang Mai through the Doi Inthanon National Park & entailed an elephant trek. I was extremely apprehensive about this portion of our trek, and asked our guide Nikon "Dragon" repeatedly if the elephants were well treated, and he repeatedly tried consoling me by saying that the elephants were in fact well treated.

Upon arriving at the elephant camp, and was immediately overwhelmed by the shere number of elephants (approx. 15 in total). The first thing I saw was a VERY young baby elephant chained by her neck to her mothers neck, with about 6 feet of chain seperating them. I immediately noticed that the mother of the baby had enormous large purple marks on her skull, with a clear wound located in the middle of the purple. This purple mark looked like iodine and it surrounded almost the entire one side of her upper skull. I asked our guide what the purple mark was, and he said it was for insect bites.

We were quickly ushered up on a platform where we were to get on the back of the designated elephant. Our group had a total of 12 people, so we required 6 elephants. Once our procession of elephants began to walk, I was able to turn around and view the other 5 elephants, and noticed that almost every one of the other elephants had the same large purple markings, with what looked like a hole / wound in the middle of the purple. Some elephants had these holes on both sides of their skulls.

Within the first 2 minutes of the trek, the elephants had to make their way down a rather steep decline in the embankment, and understandably the mother with her baby chained to her, was apprehensive of the enbankment....most likely for the safety of her still awkward baby, more so than for herself. All of a sudden I heard banging and turned around the witness the mohout of one of the other elphants violently hitting the apprehensive mother with his pointy hammer like instrument directly on the area where the hole and purple iodine markings were on her skull. I immediately yelled at the top of my lungs for the mohout to stop hitting her, and my co-travellers quickly supported me. The mohout stopped hitting her, but it was a little too late, as we saw puss & blood being dispelled from the already pre-existing wound on the elephants skull. It was now painfully clear what the "insect bites" really were.

Because of our anger at the treatment of the elephant, the mohouts didn't beat the elephants again in our presense. I desperately wanted to get off the elphant, but the mohout insisted that there was no place that I could get off safely, and was therefore forced to continue on one of the single most horrifing experiences of my life. I was so upset, I literally threw up, through my tears. I was forced to continue to watch the baby elephant being forced to climb enbankments that were 4 times her height, while her mother desperately tried to help her up the enbankment. This scene continued for 50 minutes

The grounds and path of the elephant camp was repulsive. The entire grounds and path were covered in several layers of elephant feces, including the part of the grounds were the elephants were to eat. There was a pregnant elephant that was chained to a stump with no more than 4 feet of chain to move, and she was eating a small pile of bamboo sticks that layed upon the feces laiden ground. My heart broke for this gentle giant and the life that her baby was unknowingly about to be born into.

All of the elephants on the camp were chained, and there was one elephant inparticular that looked in dreadful health. This particular elephant had the same purple iodine markings as the others at the camp, but he had the markings over his entire back spine area. Once I was able to get a little closer, I could see that he also had holes from the mohouts hammer instrument covering his entire spine (which was protruding). It was clear to me that this elephant was in very ill health.

Unfortunately I do not know the name of this particular camp, only where it was. I made complaints to our tour guide as well as the owner of the BMP Residence, and pleaded that they demand that the owners of the elephant camp better treat the elephants, or else they will no longer be able to bring tourists to their camp because they have received numerous comlaints from travellers. The owner of the BMP Residence said he had a meeting with the owner of the camp the following week and said he would bring up my concerns at that time. My gut feeling is that the owner of the BMP Residence is also the owner of the elephants, as they owned both the property as well as the lodges that we stayed in during our entire trek.

I apologize for the long email, but felt it important to make other travellers aware of the dreadful mistreatment of the elephants at the camp used by the BMP (Backpackers Meeting Place) in Chiang Mai. I am sure that there are Thais that treat their elephants with the loyalty, respect, and love that you would expect for Thailand's "most sacred animal", however they seem to be few and far between......or at least NOT used for tourist enjoyment.

Safe travels everyone! "

I personally opted out of riding them when our group when to Khao Sok Natl Park in Phang Nga. Since I am not an expert on the visual signs of abuse to these wonderful creatures, I gave them the benefit of not riding them and supporting their abuse. Don't be fooled: the guides that work these animals will not be explicit with their abuse. Most happens away from prying eyes of tourists, etc.

Other places to go to get opinions:

PETA.org News

Help Thai Elephants .COM - Know the Facts About Abuse

[Johpa]

By a recent traveler:

"Elephant Abuse (Trekking w/ BMP Residence, Chiang Mai)

<rant deleted>

There certainly are some lesser quality elephant camps, especially the smaller camps. I have never seen a baby elephant chained to its mother as the OP described, but I have seen smaller camps where the treatment of the elephants was certainly substandard. But for better or for worse, the savior of the elephants in Thailand is tourism as there is not much traditional work left in logging.

There are some very good camps such as down in Lampang and the large tourist camp up at Mae Sa. Elephant ownership has become increasingly centralized and this has placed increased financial burdens upon the remaining independent owners and camp owners who tend to rent out there animals around Doi Inthanon and up around Pai.

And yes, breaking and keeping any large beast in check, whether it be a horse or an elephant, is not always a pleasant experience, but then neither is the aftermath of such a beast having run amuck amongst humans. The alternatives to domestication given the land situation and population situation in Thailand are simply not there unless you wish to have large scale culling operations as you do in Africa.

[Payboy]

Coming to Thailand for a visit soon and I believe there are elephant rides there. Love elephants and have never seen one in person.

But are the elephants treated humanely? If I pay for an elephant ride am I supporting someone who beats the animal when I am not around or are the elephants treated well and happy in captivity?

Hoping to kiss an elephant without guilt.

If you will be near Chiang Mai, you could visit the "Elephant Nature Park". You can't ride elephants there, but you can feed and wash them and take them for a walk.

you can also borrow my lamborghini - dont drive - just fill her up and wash before returning...

[taxexile]

The grounds and path of the elephant camp was repulsive. The entire grounds and path were covered in several layers of elephant feces, including the part of the grounds were the elephants were to eat. There was a pregnant elephant that was chained to a stump with no more than 4 feet of chain to move, and she was eating a small pile of bamboo sticks that layed upon the feces laiden ground. My heart broke for this gentle giant and the life that her baby was unknowingly about to be born into.

do bears sh1t in the woods ? welcome to the natural world , perhaps the do gooders at BMP (backpackers meeting place) chiang mai might like to volunteer to teach these gentle giants how to use toilet paper next time they are in town.

[peter991]

Elephant dung is said to be the most wonderful manure/fertiliser for people who grow roses. In Australia, visiting circuses bag it and give it away - rather than have people sneak into the elephant areas and risk being trampled to death while they stole the manure for their gardens.

Peter

P.S. The elephant village not far from Pattaya seems to be well run and the elephants looked after well.