Tourists Warned Not To Feed Bangkok's Street Elephants

[edgarfriendly]

now listen - if the daughters are for sale, and the environment is for sale.

what makes anyone think the greed wud stop , ever??

how about, policing the streets? wud anyone really wanna take pics of all the filth that takes place on a hourly basis here??

1 - youd get murdered

2 - itd get blamed on anything/anyone but the true perpetrators

3 - business will go on

my advice is either be squeaky clean and non too simple. or get ya wallet out and start emptying.

""farang hab many money na, 100k is nothing"", etc

its not only the simpletons that think like that, wise up.

wives extort husbands, mothers extort daughters, extortion is the common denominator...who can u scam??

hey, wanna play cards?

hey you, wanna see boom boom sek show?

hey you, wanna go see temple?

hey, misterr. u so lucky na, rich mak mak. we're all buddhists u see, and we dont care about greed and rape and how much suffering we create, na.

its almost midnight, time to go out n 'make' money....

as ive said, u've made ur beds....im in mine by 10pm!

e2a - the PLACE is nice, but the management sucks! but then sum ppl never leave the confines of their abode, and see nothing of the real outdoors. and comment accordingly.

Edited July 14, 2010 by edgarfriendly

[mark2552]

They should fine the Police for not enforcing the LAW. Why should an unknowing tourist public be fined for the internal inability of a country to enforce their own laws.

Since the Tourist Industry was crying so loud and hard about the lack tourist dollars before, perhaps they are going to be splitting the fines with the police.

Perhaps they should give massive eye exams to all of the police in this city since they are unable to spot such a LARGE animal being lead thru the streets here.

Perhaps the Police and the Tourist Ministry are going to be spliting the 10,000 BAHT fine to try and make up for the Short Fall over the last 4 months.

[witold]

Elephants are a relic of the past. <snip>

Nonsense. Get out of the tourists areas and you will discover that in many parts of Thailand there are working elephants that are well fed and cared for by their mahout.

Please substantiate your claim and tell me where these places are located.   

I have traveled from jungle Mae Hong Son/Mae Sai/Nan all the way to Malaysia border areas and almost everywhere in between.  Elephants are *not* put to work in 99% of the country.  I believe there are some tribal villages in the middle of the jungle that still use elephants, but even in this 1%, it will end soon as a practical economic matter.  All the other remaining places where elephants "work" are nothing but a tourist show/historical attraction/festival.  If you can point me to some locations where people actually use elephants for work and not to get attention and money from tourists, I would love to go there!  Let me know where these areas are.  

[pattayabuggy]

I'm not into Thai bashing..in fact most of the people I know who think all Thais are stupid are thick as two short planks, talk absolute garbage and to me are total toss pots who should bog off back home if they think the place is that bad.

However at the risk of being a total toss pot myself I have to confess this 10K fine with regards to tourist feeding Mr Chan is nuts.

The ones who should be penalized are the cops on duty who failed to notice this 8,000 pound monster strolling up the road from Surin to Soi Cowboy at 2 mph.

For me if 1 single tourist is fined in central Bangkok then the police and their failure to do their duty have a lot of explaining to do.

Thank you for this reasoned post. I must confess, the post from chantorn just incensed me so much. This is the worst kind of attitude and unfortunately exactly the type of response I would expect from the average uneducated Thai. And yet, this person can read and write English well enough, so that in itself makes me wonder.

Of course Thai's are not all stupid, and from some educted Thai's I have spoken to, they are very often as frustrated with their own people as Westerners are.

..........

I see as utterly worthless the comment "if you don't like it go home" it's another symptom of this culture that critism, even positive critism is not allowed, and yet this is the reason why nothing changes for the better. 

The subject is supposed to be the plight of the poor elephant and the need to stop the needless suffering of this poor animal, but as usual, and we know this from years of experience, it will be turned into a money making scam by the BIB, I think that deserves critisism. Thank you

 

[Goshawk]

10k baht fine to get elephants off the streets of Bangkok ( and Chiangmai )...?

here..! here..! about time..!! ( i'd make it 20k at least )

if you want to see an elephant in Thailand then go to Khao Yai, Keang Krachan, Nam Nao etc... etc.. plenty of wild ones there to see.

oh..? can't be bothered to trek through a forest or jungle for a few hours ?

ok then, there's a few "elephant camps" ( always loved that phrase ) dotted around the kingdom where you can touch, stroke & possibly feed one - don't attempt that with any wild ones though

its all pretty obvious stuff folks.. But anyway Mrs (Thai/Chiangmai) Goshawk always puts it into perspective when we occasionaly see these street plodding elephants mooching miserably around town and even i, a paid up 'nature warrior', often takes pity on the animal - really wanting to help it out..

she always says ( having deep reverence her whole life for these iconic animals as most Thais do ).. 'No don't help, i don't like to see the elephants taking care of the man'... I immediatley snap out of the very brief trap i've fallen into.

because you know what, she's dead right. That is exactly what's happening here.. not the other way round as it first appears..

[mark2552]

Fining an unknowing tourist public 10,000 baht for feeding an elephant which the police seem to be unable to spot walking tthe streets of bangkok is a great way

to establish GOODWILL to all tourists which arrive here. I wonder which genius in the Police Department or the Ministry of Tourism thought of this. In view of the fact, just

8 to 12 weeks ago they were crying about the lack of tourist trade and money coming into this country and trying to figure out ways to lubricate the industry to get more tourist

to come here. I guess they want to milk every red cent (whoops ever red baht) out of each and every tourist they can get their hands on.

Perhaps this is one of the main reasons they call this country Amazing Thailand.

[dom samui]

Eat elephants! It's good for your health!

[Golden Nugget]

Most tourists will find out about the fine after they pay it. And of course fines will be enforced against foreigners only...

[TravelerEastWest]

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.

I also agree 100%.

[fogoyes]

it's an good idea to protect this animals. i think elephant have nothing to do on bangkoks streets. but not only bkk. around thailand you will find mahouts with their elephants on the street of every city, which has tourists as visiters. there are so many elephant-parks in the nuture - enough for any tourist want see them. and over there the elephants have a better life.<img class="bbc_emoticon" alt=":jap:" src="http://static.thaivisa.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/jap.gif"><br>

[Crushdepth]

So now the police will be following elephants around all day hoping to catch tourists feeding them. Is this going to get rid of the elephants? What a stupid, stupid idea. Dare I say, stupid by design.

[samjaidee]

I don't like these elephants, I find them annoying at best. I don't like it when they come anywhere near me.

The last thing I need is some great lumbering dinosaur chasing me down Sukhumvit while I'm half drunk. Someone told me he saw a full sized adult elephant do a runner down Soi Cowboy a few years ago.

I remember sitting outside a bar smoking a cigarette and an elephant was manouvered into the parking space just in front of me only for it to crap all over the road a few feet away from where I was enjoying my beer and cigarette. The jockey got down, collected the crap and put it into a plastic carrier bag and took it with him, very strange behaviour.

I remember rag-and-bone men (scrap merchants) in London collecting the manure after their horses dumped in the road. (by the way, I'm only 48, not 108 years old). They sold the manure on to the public. I would have thought that, even in Thailand, there's a market for quality manure in cities. Another way for the elephant handlers to earn a living.

[Soutpeel]

Eat elephants! It's good for your health!

Naah....tried it in Africa, very tough and meat tastes like cr*p.....

[newtronbom]

Most countries have a problem with "homeless" street people and how to feed and house them etc. I guess as this is Thailand, it's only natural to have homeless street elephants. As to feeding them and getting fined for it......their handlers/owners are most probably making a needed buck or two off the sympathetic tourists. But I seem to remember that elephants eat a huge amount of fodder each day. How do they get that here in Bangkok? They 'are' on the street and if the bib arrest the owner/handler, who then will be responsible? I would imagine it would cost quite a bit too, to send them all back to the parks or jungle or whatever. Who is going to pay to do that? Is it even the right thing to do, as these "street Elephants" are now "City Elephants".....could they cope with the Low tech wilds any more? How did they even get here in the first place??? Where do they bed down even? This has been going on for years now, but there seems to be an increase in numbers in recent years, so someone must be making money out of it. Thai folks are not stupid, contrary to popular thought on this forum and very seldom do things for free.....Just a thought. Another thought, is what is standing near all the traffic here in Bangkok, doing to their health? Put a white mask on for a day here and see the color of it at the end of the day. In the long run, does all this really deserve so much attention here on TV? It will go on no matter what we say. It has to be said, that if they really wanted to stop it, they could - I mean where do you hide a 3 ton Elephant in the city? Lets be real about this.

Edited July 14, 2010 by newtronbom

[samjaidee]

Most countries have a problem with "homeless" street people and how to feed and house them etc. I guess as this is Thailand, it's only natural to have homeless street elephants. As to feeding them and getting fined for it......their handlers/owners are most probably making a needed buck or two off the sympathetic tourists. But I seem to remember that elephants eat a huge amount of fodder each day. How do they get that here in Bangkok? They 'are' on the street and if the bib arrest the owner/handler, who then will be responsible? I would imagine it would cost quite a bit too, to send them all back to the parks or jungle or whatever. Who is going to pay to do that? Is it even the right thing to do, as these "street Elephants" are now "City Elephants".....could they cope with the Low tech wilds any more? How did they even get here in the first place??? Where do they bed down even? This has been going on for years now, but there seems to be an increase in numbers in recent years, so someone must be making money out of it. Thai folks are not stupid, contrary to popular thought on this forum and very seldom do things for free.....Just a thought. Another thought, is what is standing near all the traffic here in Bangkok, doing to their health? Put a white mask on for a day here and see the color of it at the end of the day. In the long run, does all this really deserve so much attention here on TV? It will go on no matter what we say. It has to be said, that if they really wanted to stop it, they could - I mean where do you hide a 3 ton Elephant in the city? Lets be real about this.

Thank you 'newtronbom'. It's refreshing to see someone adding an insightful comment for a change rather than the misspelled rant of many posters.

[Soutpeel]

rather than the misspelled rant of many posters.

Another "English" teacher ?.....Watch out gents, the grammar police are out and about....

[markt7081]

I always discourage my international visitors from feeding the nellies,

The elephants should not be in BKK, you can see the distress they are in.

Fine the tourists, what a croc, Just another tourist rip off, to discourage people from coming here.

Imprision the elephant owners would work, but then that would be too hard.

[Hannuman]

Even out here in the sticks in TaChang village a young elephant is a regular  begging feature in the market place .<BR>As this is not an area frequented by tourists ,let alone Khun Tang Chart , of which less than a handful live in the area ,all the donations are from poor agricultural labourers and rice farmers .<BR>Try exacting a fine of 10,000 baht on these offenders .........this represents 3 months income !

[ukfool]

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

Really pis*ed off with this place now, obvious answer, arrest the Mahout's why even talk abot fines for tourists ? What a bunch of inept wan*ers. I'm off back to UK, good luck everyone.

P.S. Please no 'I totally refuse to look facts in the face because I am rich' or 'I have a good life in Thailand' replies

Oh yeah without sounding racist, even though it seems perfectly acceptable in this country, no replies from Yanks please - don''t make me suffer more shit !

Edited July 14, 2010 by ukfool

[spectrumisgreen]

It's never nice to see these animals so far off their natural habitats - dragged around ours for someone to make a few baht, in fact!! - but I think announcing 10k baht fines is neither the answer nor will be actually carried through anyway, except to extort the odd unknowing farang!!! As usual, it's not a 'to the root of it' real answer, just that word 'crackdown' again to make someone try (albeit ever unconvincingly!) to look, and maybe even feel, like they're doing something other than pick up their salary (etc!) each month!!! :jap:

[Rucharee]

I'm not into Thai bashing..in fact most of the people I know who think all Thais are stupid are thick as two short planks, talk absolute garbage and to me are total toss pots who should bog off back home if they think the place is that bad.

However at the risk of being a total toss pot myself I have to confess this 10K fine with regards to tourist feeding Mr Chan is nuts.

The ones who should be penalized are the cops on duty who failed to notice this 8,000 pound monster strolling up the road from Surin to Soi Cowboy at 2 mph.

For me if 1 single tourist is fined in central Bangkok then the police and their failure to do their duty have a lot of explaining to do.

Thank you for this reasoned post. I must confess, the post from chantorn just incensed me so much. This is the worst kind of attitude and unfortunately exactly the type of response I would expect from the average uneducated Thai. And yet, this person can read and write English well enough, so that in itself makes me wonder.

Of course Thai's are not all stupid, and from some educted Thai's I have spoken to, they are very often as frustrated with their own people as Westerners are.

..........

I see as utterly worthless the comment "if you don't like it go home" it's another symptom of this culture that critism, even positive critism is not allowed, and yet this is the reason why nothing changes for the better.

The subject is supposed to be the plight of the poor elephant and the need to stop the needless suffering of this poor animal, but as usual, and we know this from years of experience, it will be turned into a money making scam by the BIB, I think that deserves critisism. Thank you

If Faransg don't feed the elephants, the elephant men will have no income and will not come to the city.

In conclusion, Farangs are the source of the problem.

Stop the Farangs, and it will stop the elephants.

[harrycallahan]

What's the expression about the "elephant in the room"?

There's a bleeping elephant in the street and they decide to fine the people that feed it!

Grab the guy with the elephant and tell him to take it get back to the bleeping jungle.

[pedro01]

8 to 12 weeks ago they were crying about the lack of tourist trade and money coming into this country and trying to figure out ways to lubricate the industry to get more tourist

to come here. I guess they want to milk every red cent (whoops ever red baht) out of each and every tourist they can get their hands on.

TIT.

There are less tourists, therefore more baht must be extorted per tourist. Royal Thai Police economics 101.

[dasy]

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

The only way to keep them alive is to get them out of the city before they get killed by car accidents, bad food or bad treatment from the owners. I always shiver when I see an elephant walking on the scorching asphalt burning it's sensitive soles of it's feet. These gentle giants should be where they thrive best: the jungle. The reason why they are in the city is because their owners do not have another way of making money so they use the elephants. I wonder if you ever watched how people tame elephants and take away their children way before it is their natural time for it. I have watched an elephant die on Rama 9 after being hit by a pick up, broken bones the whole shebang and never ever give food to them to thinking you will do good. Please remember when the feeding stops, there is no reason for bringing them into the city. The story of King Kong applies here too .....pity this is reality.

[dom samui]

Mai pen rai ! Dont need to worry ....2012 very soon!

[dasy]

8 to 12 weeks ago they were crying about the lack of tourist trade and money coming into this country and trying to figure out ways to lubricate the industry to get more tourist

to come here. I guess they want to milk every red cent (whoops ever red baht) out of each and every tourist they can get their hands on.

TIT.

There are less tourists, therefore more baht must be extorted per tourist. Royal Thai Police economics 101.

in this case feeding them is animal cruelty.

[pattayabuggy]

I'm not into Thai bashing..in fact most of the people I know who think all Thais are stupid are thick as two short planks, talk absolute garbage and to me are total toss pots who should bog off back home if they think the place is that bad.

However at the risk of being a total toss pot myself I have to confess this 10K fine with regards to tourist feeding Mr Chan is nuts.

The ones who should be penalized are the cops on duty who failed to notice this 8,000 pound monster strolling up the road from Surin to Soi Cowboy at 2 mph.

For me if 1 single tourist is fined in central Bangkok then the police and their failure to do their duty have a lot of explaining to do.

Thank you for this reasoned post. I must confess, the post from chantorn just incensed me so much. This is the worst kind of attitude and unfortunately exactly the type of response I would expect from the average uneducated Thai. And yet, this person can read and write English well enough, so that in itself makes me wonder.

Of course Thai's are not all stupid, and from some educted Thai's I have spoken to, they are very often as frustrated with their own people as Westerners are.

..........

I see as utterly worthless the comment "if you don't like it go home" it's another symptom of this culture that critism, even positive critism is not allowed, and yet this is the reason why nothing changes for the better.

The subject is supposed to be the plight of the poor elephant and the need to stop the needless suffering of this poor animal, but as usual, and we know this from years of experience, it will be turned into a money making scam by the BIB, I think that deserves critisism. Thank you

If Faransg don't feed the elephants, the elephant men will have no income and will not come to the city.

In conclusion, Farangs are the source of the problem.

Stop the Farangs, and it will stop the elephants.

About one week ago a baby elephant came down the soi where I live, all the Thai people rushed to buy bananas for the elephant, I did not. Why did I not? Well it's the same as paying to release birds from the cages in the temple, I refuse to give there as well, and for the same reason, without the money the cruel acts would stop. But through ignorance and compassion many people think they are actually helping the animal. To then fine them for the act of compassion is disgusting. The problem needs stopping at the source, constantly blaming foreigners for all of Thailand's ills is just not constructive, and with this sort of attitude from Rucharee and indeed most Thai's I see no hope of things ever improving.

Thai's are perfect and of course there is no reason to try to improve anything!

[newtronbom]

I'm not into Thai bashing..in fact most of the people I know who think all Thais are stupid are thick as two short planks, talk absolute garbage and to me are total toss pots who should bog off back home if they think the place is that bad.

However at the risk of being a total toss pot myself I have to confess this 10K fine with regards to tourist feeding Mr Chan is nuts.

The ones who should be penalized are the cops on duty who failed to notice this 8,000 pound monster strolling up the road from Surin to Soi Cowboy at 2 mph.

For me if 1 single tourist is fined in central Bangkok then the police and their failure to do their duty have a lot of explaining to do.

Thank you for this reasoned post. I must confess, the post from chantorn just incensed me so much. This is the worst kind of attitude and unfortunately exactly the type of response I would expect from the average uneducated Thai. And yet, this person can read and write English well enough, so that in itself makes me wonder.

Of course Thai's are not all stupid, and from some educted Thai's I have spoken to, they are very often as frustrated with their own people as Westerners are.

..........

I see as utterly worthless the comment "if you don't like it go home" it's another symptom of this culture that critism, even positive critism is not allowed, and yet this is the reason why nothing changes for the better.

The subject is supposed to be the plight of the poor elephant and the need to stop the needless suffering of this poor animal, but as usual, and we know this from years of experience, it will be turned into a money making scam by the BIB, I think that deserves critisism. Thank you

If Faransg don't feed the elephants, the elephant men will have no income and will not come to the city.

In conclusion, Farangs are the source of the problem.

Stop the Farangs, and it will stop the elephants.

Can't think when I have read such a ridiculous post! You got it all back to front. The Elephants were around long before any Farangs made this place popular, but there were only a few in the odd town as a show, the rest were working. Do your research before you make such biased comments, that are so far from reality, that I had to force myself to answer your idiotic reply. It was only your county-mans greed, that bought an increase in these animals here in Bangkok and in many other places. No Elephants = no problem. Simple. There is no reason for there to be any Elephants in Bangkok at all, except in the zoo. You tell me where they have work and such in Bangkok? You give your own good people a bad rep from a post like this!!

Edited July 14, 2010 by newtronbom

[ukrules]

Perhaps it's time for a cull of the elephants. They were culling badgers in the UK yesterday, I think they got a few hundred of the infected diseased stripey ones before some 'hippy' demonstration forced them to finish for the day.

[Soutpeel]

If Faransg don't feed the elephants, the elephant men will have no income and will not come to the city.

In conclusion, Farangs are the source of the problem.

Stop the Farangs, and it will stop the elephants.

Please tell me this post was made tongue in cheek ?.....