Tourists Warned Not To Feed Bangkok's Street Elephants

[jbsears]

I don't think most of posters read the article. The tourists are not fined. The mahouts are fined.

[SanSaiExPat]

How can you tell if there's an elephant hiding in your refrigerator? Footprints in the Jello.

[asiawatcher]

Let me get this right - tourist goes for a walk into the notorious red light districts that don't exist, passive baby elephant comes by and owner offer 20 baht to feed the poor creature. Brown shirt assh*les jump him - pocket the 10k - hit up on the mahout and tell him if he doesn't walk the street with the pakky for the next two hours and they don't make 200k they will fine him 10k as well? So off goes scared mahout with poor animal who is hungry, looking for another long suffering tourist? - is it that the Thai system keeps passing laws to keep feeding the dumb-as disgrace called 'police' in this country? And can you imagine - the BiB's saying the fine is 10,000? No way - off to the slammer - offer of 100k and a passage to the airport to be given to King Power to start again - come in spinner....

I hope the bloody Govt reads my blog. It never stops.

[Travelish]

it is like a zoo here, and I do not mean the elephants.....

[asiawatcher]

I don't think most of posters read the article. The tourists are not fined. The mahouts are fined.

Tourists in Bangkok are being warned not to buy food for street elephants or risk a 10,000 baht (310 dollars) fine{/quote][/color]

you stand corrected...

[davee58]

I 100% agree with you, the elephants belong in their natural habitat. Keeping them in the city is helping to kill them, not helping to keep them alive.

Agreed, likewise Tourists belong in their natural habitat, on the beach. Keeping them in the city is cruel, and does not provide them with the long and happy life that they deserve.

All the elephants I have seen in Bangkok seem happy enough, always smiling

[KeyserSoze01]

Yet another clip job on the lowly farang tourist.

How many tourists watch Thai TV or speak any thai to understand that this 'new' (profit center) has been implemented?

Why don't the BiB keep the elephants off the streets before they have a chance to cause problems? We all know the answer to that one.

If the mahouts & elephants are destitute, why are they not informed of these elephant sanctuaries where they can roam free and live a life of leisure?

Just more evidence that Thailand is a joke and is only getting worse.

[BlackJack]

now if only they can also 10000 baht fine people for noise making, driving on the footpath, driving on the wrong side of the road, 10 on a bike, burning rubbish on the street, etc etc etc

[samjaidee]

People...and tourists...luv elephants. Now we can get a 10000baht fine for helping keep them alive. That sucks!

if you really love elephants u should do your part to protect them and ensure that they can live where they belong to.

There are parks in Thailand where they can live in a naturally perfect environment and not on streets where they suffer from many diseases, often treated badly.

Information is all: elephants back to nature

I 100% agree with you, the elephants belong in their natural habitat. Keeping them in the city is helping to kill them, not helping to keep them alive.

If an elephant is born and raised in captivity and has spent its life doing things at the behest of men then what is its natural habitat? Should an orphan Orangutan be returned to its natural habitat to fend for itself when it reaches maturity? Sometimes its a tough call isn't it?

[moetownblues]

Tourists flying into Thailand will not know about this new law. Will Thai immigration Authorities paste huge warning signs at immigrations counters and actually tell tourists of this? I guess not and see another scam breeding...

[witsawakorn]

My My, the BIB must be getting desperate for cash....getting really creactive in ways to increase their coffers...

But could someone please explain HTF an elephant gets TB from car fumes and narrow streets ??......superb butchery of the English language once again....

I don't think that the car fumes( or even worse the fine dust kicked up by the wheels are going to promote healthy lungs Do you?

I wouldn't call it butchery of the English language. You should try using spellcheck before complaining about people's English or are you just being creactive? [sic] I suppose you to say something to be able to average 30 posts a week

[davee58]

Let me get this right - tourist goes for a walk into the notorious red light districts that don't exist, passive baby elephant comes by and owner offer 20 baht to feed the poor creature. Brown shirt assh*les jump him - pocket the 10k - hit up on the mahout and tell him if he doesn't walk the street with the pakky for the next two hours and they don't make 200k they will fine him 10k as well? So off goes scared mahout with poor animal who is hungry, looking for another long suffering tourist? - is it that the Thai system keeps passing laws to keep feeding the dumb-as disgrace called 'police' in this country? And can you imagine - the BiB's saying the fine is 10,000? No way - off to the slammer - offer of 100k and a passage to the airport to be given to King Power to start again - come in spinner....

I hope the bloody Govt reads my blog. It never stops.

Not quite...

The BiB may well OWN the elephant and the mahout now as they are can now bring in a lot of tea money.

[bristolgeoff]

good idea this will stop alot of elephants being mistreated in all of thailand.in chiang mai it will stop the trade i never agreed in the first place

[Arkady]

Yet another ludicrous crack down. The police have had sufficient legislation to keep elephants out of Bkk for decades but they choose to do nothing about the sad problem. Now they are going to victimise tourists fresh off the plane who cannot be expected to know about this pernicious law. The police will love shaking down the tourists and the tourists will post their unpleasant experiences in Thailand on the Internet. In fact police will probably encourage mahouts to bring as many elephants as possible to boost their income from extorting tourist. The authorities obviously learned nothing from the backlash suffered by Thai tourist as a result of allowing the the King Power duty free scam to go on for months. What a bunch of idiots.

[basjke]

They fail to ban elephants from the city so instead of fining the mahouts ( read thai citizens ) they will no get their money from the uninformed tourists.

Wanna bet ( sh*t that is also illegal ) that at once there gonna be a lot of elephants around and all the warning signs will be in Thai language only.Same as with the no littering fines,then remove all the garbage bins.

Edited July 13, 2010 by basjke

[kuffki]

They fail to ban elephants from the city so instead of fining the mahouts ( read thai citizens ) they will no get their money from the uninformed tourists.

Wanna bet ( sh*t that is also illegal ) that at once there gonna be a lot of elephants around and all the warning signs will be in Thai language only.Same as with the no littering fines,then remove all the garbage bins.

Yeah i loved this one. No littering, yet can not find a bin in 1 kim radius.

PS. Its perfectly acceptable for a Thai to go toilet in public or spit or for the small vendors to dump their rubbish on the street, but a tourist putting out a cigarette earns him 2000 baht fine

Funny enough as you said all signs are in Thai and paper work proving the law is also in Thai, so really tourist have no idea at all what the law is, what the fine is or what the heck he just signed

[moetownblues]

Come to Thailand feed our sex industry. But if you contribute to the salvation of wildlife then you will be fined.

[eladblum]

Isn't it easier to find those elephants? its not like the handlers are hiding them up their asses like a bag of heroin...

[yesdavy]

<BR>

<BR>Call BMA hotline 1555 and let them know where u have seen the elephant, also call the police, inform them that u have seen an elephant AND that u already informed the authorities who provided that servicenumber 1555 to take steps against the one who take the elephant to the city. Take photo of the stupid tourist who feed the elephant. Everyone who get some information should be aware of that problem. So there are no excuses if someone get caught.<BR>

<BR><BR>I hope you are saying this in jest...<BR><BR>1) Tourists cannot be held responsible for the Police not doing their job and cannot be required to check animal handlers license before they pay for the pleasure of having an elephant snatch a corn bar from their hand.<BR>2) If an elephant and its handler walks by several police officers without action, why would calling the police help?<BR><BR>I have even seen an elephant and its handler on Silom several times and there is always police officers around plus a police car check station there every night...<BR>

<BR><BR>1) Sure they can.  Tourists can be held responsible for anything and everything, if they ever show up again.  And what is your point about the elephant snatch?<BR>2) To let them know to stay away since an undercover operation is progress...until feeding time, and they get 20,000 from the handler and the tourist, double dipping.  What?  The handlers don't have 10K baht?  No problem.  Elephant gets confiscated and now only police elephants are exempt, so feed away folks, and oh, by the way, exempt elephants need 200 baht bananas, unless you'd rather pay for the 10K bananas :-]<BR><BR>Sounds like a red shirt conspiracy to me, it's all their fault, isn't it?  Didn't the red shirts introduce the concept of corruption?<BR><BR>Honey, where's that Chang I asked for?  If you get it over here in ten seconds I'll buy you a house with your name on it (in East Timor, yuk, yuk.)<BR>

[prakhonchai nick]

Gambling is illegal, and a recent thread started by Cardholder was closed for this very reason.

Feeding elephants on Bangkok streets is also illegal, so will the mods close this thread too?

[nicksal37]

I think this is very good news for the elephants.I totally agree with what Khun Farangcravings has to say( post 27 ) and I do hope this will apply to Chaingmai as well.

[Hornell]

Whilst the average Brit living at home might think this is a new initiative of the Thai Government to deal with the problem of elephants in the city, those of us who live here know better. How many elephant 'crackdowns' I have read about in my 13 years in Thailand I don't know, but I ran out of fingers on one hand. The authorities have failed to do anything about the problem by making the city a no-go zone for elephants and fining the mahouts, mainly because the police turn a blind eye. One can see the patient animals plodding past the police box on Asoke/Sukhumvit or Soi 3 (Nana)/Sukhumvit regularly. So the authorities have once again taken the easy option; if you can't effectively target the owners or the mahouts, go for those who will offer the least resistance - the tourists, those who have paid 20 Baht to feed the animals. Slap them with a 10,000 Baht fine, that should sort the problem! It won't, of course, and neither is it likely to do anything at all to help Thailand's tottering tourist industry, which at present surely needs all the help it can get. Just as Taksin's 'crackdown' on drugs targetted the little and often innocent fish and achieved nothing, by not going for the source of the elephant problem, the owners, this attack on farang tourists will serve only to alienate the Kingdom further in the eyes of the international tourist community without achieving its intended aim.

[Deeral]

now who will benefit from this?

not the tourists

Not the elephants because they still have nowhere to go

now who does that leave?

[ukrules]

BANGKOK (AFP) -- Tourists in Bangkok are being warned not to buy food for street elephants or risk a 10,000 baht (310 dollars) fine in the latest clampdown on begging by owners of the animals.

<snip>

If caught, the mahouts face a 10,000 baht fine and six months in jail.

So does this law cover both the tourists and the mahouts or just the mahouts ? It's not entirely clear to me especially as it mentions a clampdown on the owners of the animals.

I suspect something's got lost in the translation here as the fine is the same for owning an elephant as it is for simply feeding the large smelly beasts.

Edited July 13, 2010 by ukrules

[welsh1]

People...and tourists...luv elephants. Now we can get a 10000baht fine for helping keep them alive. That sucks!

Love elephants or not, anybody with half a brain knows that elephants don't belong in cities...and feeding them bananas and sugar cane doesn't really help to keep these mammals alive. Anybody who really wants to help should donate money to one of the various funds for elephants or directly to the elephant farms/villages (or whatever they're called).

There's one youngish elephant that is paraded around Hua Hin every evening. It disgusts me to see these idiots (tourists and locals alike) feeding them.

Well Said couldn't have put it any better myself ....!!

[krakatoa]

People...and tourists...luv elephants. Now we can get a 10000baht fine for helping keep them alive. That sucks!

if you really love elephants u should do your part to protect them and ensure that they can live where they belong to.

There are parks in Thailand where they can live in a naturally perfect environment and not on streets where they suffer from many diseases, often treated badly.

Information is all: elephants back to nature

So now your saying that tourists are responsible for getting these beasts back to where they belong.

Amazing Thailand where you get fined because the Thai authorities cannot do their jobs.

No wonder the country is the laughing stock that it is.

Edited July 13, 2010 by krakatoa

[petedk]

I am sure I read a few weeks ago in another newspaper that anyone who saw an elephant in Bangkok and reported it to the police would get a reward. I forget the figure... maybe 1000 baht or something. At the same time any policeman arresting the mahout would also get a reward.

Mind you if a tourist is threatened with a 10,000 baht fine then the cops stand to make more money by turning a blind eye to the elephants but keeping an eagle eye on the tourists.

Seriously though I agree entirely that elephants do not belong on the streets of Bangkok. The same goes for gibbons, eagles and other animals that people keep so that tourists can take a souvenir photo.

[Deeral]

PLease don't dignify these people with the title of "mahout" they are not the elephants keeper, they rent them off the owners so they can drag them round the streets and get money for a bag of rotten fruit that the elephant doesn't need - have you ever seen an elephant eat in the wild? and seen how much they eat? - those stupid bags would "touch the sides" even if they ate them continuously all night

[julemanden]

People...and tourists...luv elephants. Now we can get a 10000baht fine for helping keep them alive. That sucks!

I so much agree with you.... What a crazy joke... Only in Thailand the land of BS.

[Deeral]

So will someone say where they think all these unemployed elephants are going to go? THey won't just melt away into the bushes - they're quite big you know.

They will just find another part of town to wander around - they certainly haven't made provision for them to be resettled in nice elephant retirement homes.

Edited July 13, 2010 by Deeral