My husband and I were looking for a nice wine tasting and elephant ride through the Hua Hin Hills Winery today. We climbed on the elephant and started out, within ten feet the mahout was severely hitting the elephant on the head with the bullhook, just for straying two feet over to eat some leaves off a tree. This elephants head was full of holes and bloody punctures from past beating. We told the mahout to turn around and take us back to the boarding platform and tried to explain to him why we were so upset. It was one of the worst examples of animal abuse I have ever witnessed. We have been in Thailand for two months and have seen nothing like this so far. Please do not visit this winery or buy any of the wine it sells at the local store located in the Hua Hin Market Place. We have contacted the owner of the winery via email to ask him to do something about this, save this elephant and fire this mahout. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can help this elephant out of this abusive situation, please let me know....

i saw similar in ayuthaya once. i almost puked. the mahout hammered the spike end into the top of chaang's head and i heard it from 20 meters away... if the elephant requires that much 'discipline' maybe they shouldnt be ridden.

i fear tho that it is the common way of mahouts- firing that guy, he would be replaced with same.

the mahout simply does not know better. the mahout would most likely be a poor villager who knows that driving the chaang is how he feeds his family. and to get his pay he has to control the elephant. so for the impoverished mahout, treating the animal with respect is a luxury he cant afford. very sad. tho i do believe writing to the winery and voicing your concern is worthwhile. perhaps even a threat that you will be informing every guide book in english- and enclose a list of them all. perhaps they will have to find a more humane method of elephant entertainment/

Saitang, welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about this.

We took one elephant ride in the outskirts of Hua Hin several years ago, and witnessed nothing like that. There are mahout schools to train the handlers.

elephant abuse trial in the usa , and video

We were in Kachanaburi recently and took a 30mins elephant ride. We were shock that a bullhook is used to control the elephant. The ears were torn and the elephants look as though they have been through quite a lot of pain. We do not think the elephants were well treated. Unfortunately, these kind of places will continue to trade as long as there are tourist who want to ride elephants. When you have travel half way around the world, you are game to try anything. We must change our attitude and not promote these kind of tourism. Awareness to these kind of cruelty and making the owners of these places understand that their way of treating elephants are not acceptable and will not be tolerated.

On a positive note, we visited the tiger temple nearby and noted the tigers were very well look after and fed.

We believe this kind of forum will create awareness among our readers.

Unfortunately, these kind of places will continue to trade as long as there are tourist who want to ride elephants. When you have travel half way around the world, you are game to try anything. We must change our attitude and not promote these kind of tourism.

quite right. using animals for entertainment will inevitably lead to abuse. tourists should realise that and avoid these kind of activities.