Two Held In Killing Of Wild Elephant In Phetchaburi; Ivory Buyer Sought

[luckyman]

I hope the police/courts make an example of these poachers that might deter a future sensless killing of wild elephants.

You can be sure they will show case it, as DAMAGE CONTROL !!

Nab a couple as fall guys and then pretend that it is all under control, whilst there is undeniable corruption in very poweful places where a lot of money is being made, not so much on the ivory market, but very BIG money changing hands for young elephants for the entertainment of dumb tourists.

READ THIS ... CAREFULLY

The slaughter of family groups of elephants in Thailand and neighbouring countries is being funded by tourists. Not until there is global awareness, outrage expressed, and elephant entertainment boycotted, will this stop. I am closely connected to those "on the ground".

Relative to demand, there is a shortage of elephant calves born in captivity, for use in the various tourist entertainment activities. For those available, the treatment is horrid enough, with brutalisation - to break their spirits - but to slaughter a family group simply to get their filthy hands on the calf is what most of the poaching is about. Ivory is just a bonus, and official statements about ivory are a decoy, a distraction from the bigger issue.

Just where is the proof to this story that tourist dollars are supporting the killing of herds for calves. The elephant parks I personally know of have a very successful breeding program with a new calve birthed just 7 days ago at one of the parks. This story you are helping spread around is just negative propaganda that does not help the problem of domesticated elephants in Thailand. Get your facts right my friend. Don't follow the ban of critics that are all acting like sheep. Have you ever been to these elephant camps and seen for yourself what an important role they play in helping the elephants.

These elephant camps, as you might have read in the meantime in several BK Post/The Nation articles are part of the problem indeed.

Why?

For one, some of them act as a cover up for illegal trade of elephants, secondly a baby elephant caught in the wild, will not survive for more than a week unless nurtured by an adult female elephant.

So they bring them to an elephant camp, where nobody can see that the baby actually isn't the child of one of the females overthere.

Unlike with humans where you can often see from the body's or face's features wether a child is indeed the off spring of these parents, it's impossible to determine like wise with elephants.

Hence, a dna data base should have been set up a decade ago.

Until there's a dna data base which is run honestly and reliably, these camps will help sustain poaching on wild (baby)elephants.

Also, as long as there are many tourists taking a ride on these wild animals all over Thailand, demand remains high and baby elephants will get caught in the wild. They fetch on the black market between 800.000 THB and 1.000.000,- THB at the moment so it's big business.