‘My holiday in Thailand turned into hell’

[masuk]

JAIME SINGLETON, Australian traveller

“Last December I was on holiday with my partner and we were walking down the street after dinner in Phuket, at about 8pm, and thought we’d go to the Dino Bar at the Marina Phuket Resort as it looked like an attraction.

There we saw “Nadia” the baby elephant tied up outside it and she was having photos taken with tourists.

She was roped around her back leg, and tied up to a pole. There was a man standing close to her and he had his hand on her ear. There were tourists surrounding her and hanging off her, offering food in return for the photos.

http://zite.to/1Op8APl

[TheAppletons]

You have got to be kidding me. I was expecting a story of beatings, kidnappings, robbery, police corruption, trumped up drug charges from planted narcotics......turns out, Jaime saw an elephant.

[onthedarkside]

Let's move this to the Phuket forum

[Brit_Doggie]

this happens in thailand.

[LivinginKata]

Covered a couple of weeks ago ---> http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/815319-livestock-officers-check-reports-of-elephant-abuse-on-phuket/

[LivinginKata]

Another report ---> http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/813153-phuket-nikki-beach-club-promises-no-more-elephants/

[CMBob]

While I certainly don't support much if any of the animal tourism, the author of the story is a bit wacko (putting it mildly). She's on holiday in Phuket and one evening after dinner she sees the baby elephant (photo in the story). She convinced herself that the baby elephant looked "sad" which caused her to "burst into tears" and that one brief encounter one evening in Phuket "completely ruined" her holiday trip to Thailand. Geez, get a grip.

[ChaangNoi]

Maybe we should tell her we will let them all go back into the wild, so we can set up a hunting area. That is after all the elephants natural habitat...

[grumpyoldman]

Wow, drama queen..........

[ThaiRich]

Why do these whacked out farang women come to Thailand and try to pose their holier than thou beliefs on others?

[ChaangNoi]

Why do these whacked out farang women come to Thailand and try to pose their holier than thou beliefs on others?

The west is a very messed up place.

[Mcffee]

The way elephants are abused and exploited for tourism is disgusting ideed. The 'traditional' days long bloody torture of baby elehants to break their mind with sticks and knives is still going on hidden behind the false smiles of people calling themselves 'buddhist'.

[MisterTee]

The way elephants are abused and exploited for tourism is disgusting ideed. The 'traditional' days long bloody torture of baby elehants to break their mind with sticks and knives is still going on hidden behind the false smiles of people calling themselves 'buddhist'.

How right you are Mcffee,

it's thainess with a capital Tee.

[MaeJoMTB]

The way elephants are abused and exploited for tourism is disgusting ideed. The 'traditional' days long bloody torture of baby elehants to break their mind with sticks and knives is still going on hidden behind the false smiles of people calling themselves 'buddhist'.

Nobody would keep a large mammal for a pet.

If they weren't of use they would be killed.

Same as we did to all the large animals in the west.

Edited April 18, 2015 by MaeJoMTB

[Sparkles]

Why do these whacked out farang women come to Thailand and try to pose their holier than thou beliefs on others?

Its not about a whacked out farang its about awareness of exploiting animals to make money. elephants are in particular abused to make them perform unnatural acts.

I guess you support elephants trudging up and down the bars in Sukumvit too or the tiger temple at Kanchanaburi which by chance has acquired 146 tigers and bears in captivity ...its all about money

...wake up ThaiRich animal cruelty is banned in most advanced countries why should it be allowed here

[sharktooth]

Sad to hear of an elephant being tied to a tree... when he could be having a lot more fun playing football.

[DogNo1]

The mistreatment of animals goes on everywhere. Vietnam is a prime location for animal trafficking. Do these countries have SPCAs? Local involvement is necessary for conditions to improve.

[slipperylobster]

It is much worse...the mom was probably shot and killed.....just to have the tusks sawed off.

Her baby, mourning at her side, was locked in a cage for 2 months and transported to Phuket.

She has been chained there, for what seems to her to be an eternity...eating junk food and posing

with fat tourists....half blinded by the flashes. Now half mad, she sways from side to side...and has

visions of growing her own tusks, with which to gore the stomachs out of passing tourists...Just waiting.

[ksamuiguy]

Reality sucks!

Some one needs to feed the animal and take care of it.

Alternative, put it back in it's Natural Environment, OH!, there home is gone, replaced by resorts, roads, farms and people.

As long as the animal is not abused or maltreated, it is better than the alternative of being relegated to the growing list of Extinct Species.

Enjoy the as long as you can, they won't be here long.

Taking care of these animals is difficult and expensive.

Who is going to do it YOU!

[LivinginKata]

All the Inflammatory/offensive posts about the writer have been removed.

[beechbum]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Reality sucks!

Some one needs to feed the animal and take care of it.

Alternative, put it back in it's Natural Environment, OH!, there home is gone, replaced by resorts, roads, farms and people.

As long as the animal is not abused or maltreated, it is better than the alternative of being relegated to the growing list of Extinct Species.

Enjoy the as long as you can, they won't be here long.

Taking care of these animals is difficult and expensive.

Who is going to do it YOU!

Nailed it, this is what the do-gooders don't get, I love animals as much as the next person but as stated above, the reality is that there's unfortunately very little room left for the larger varieties.

[MaeJoMTB]

It is much worse...the mom was probably shot and killed.....just to have the tusks sawed off.

Her baby, mourning at her side, was locked in a cage for 2 months and transported to Phuket.

She has been chained there, for what seems to her to be an eternity...eating junk food and posing

with fat tourists....half blinded by the flashes. Now half mad, she sways from side to side...and has

visions of growing her own tusks, with which to gore the stomachs out of passing tourists...Just waiting.

Do mum's have tusks?

[grumpyoldman]

Seems like everybody's got a price,
I wonder how they sleep at night
When the sale comes first
And the truth comes second.

[KarenBravo]

Just another idealistic environmentalist that doesn't understand how the world works. Demanding a solution to a problem that they themselves cannot supply.

When deforestation was the cause celebre with the greenies a couple of decades ago, the cutting down of trees in the forests stopped, thus putting out of work at a stroke hundreds of elephants, most born in captivity, that were used to pull the cut logs to a road.

Suddenly, there are all these elephants that cannot earn their keep. Returning them to the wild was not an option.

I don't believe that these baby elephants were kidnapped from the wild. There are just too many captive elephants in Thailand to make that necessary.

As many environmentalists have discovered. The only way to preserve wild-life is to "make it pay", to allow the local people to benefit. Otherwise, it's a lost cause. Examples are employment for the locals at African game-parks. The income from photo-safaris and selling the right to shoot an animal for some outrageous amount and then use the money for conservation.

So..........using a baby elephant to make money to help pay for it's keep is wrong. Sometimes the choices in life are between bad and worse.......

[Ricardo]

I feel the same about Koala Bears in Australia !

When I saw one in Brisbane, I immediately wanted to have one shot & stuffed, so that I could take it home with me, to cry over !

[steven100]

Oh my god, this really is tragic .... an elephant tied to a post !!

[ThaiRich]

Why do these whacked out farang women come to Thailand and try to pose their holier than thou beliefs on others?

Its not about a whacked out farang its about awareness of exploiting animals to make money. elephants are in particular abused to make them perform unnatural acts.

I guess you support elephants trudging up and down the bars in Sukumvit too or the tiger temple at Kanchanaburi which by chance has acquired 146 tigers and bears in captivity ...its all about money

...wake up ThaiRich animal cruelty is banned in most advanced countries why should it be allowed here

Because this isn't an advanced country. Again self righteous westerners going to a foreign country and demands the little brown man change their ways and beliefs so the white imperialist is comfortable.

[ThaiRich]

I want to add that I don't agree with it and I don't have my picture taken with captive animals. But I don't impose my beliefs and morals on a culture that is different than mine.

The solution is to eliminate the demand for pictures taken with animals or wild animals shows and the supply will disappear.

Edited April 19, 2015 by ThaiRich

[circusman]

I'm ashamed of fellow posters. The woman wrote what she saw and felt. You all jump on her like her opinion didn't count. But you expect your opinions to count. SHAME

[slipperylobster]

It is much worse...the mom was probably shot and killed.....just to have the tusks sawed off.

Her baby, mourning at her side, was locked in a cage for 2 months and transported to Phuket.

She has been chained there, for what seems to her to be an eternity...eating junk food and posing

with fat tourists....half blinded by the flashes. Now half mad, she sways from side to side...and has

visions of growing her own tusks, with which to gore the stomachs out of passing tourists...Just waiting.

Do mum's have tusks?

I stand corrected....only ladyboy elephants have tusks.

switch the scenario to "father" vice mom...... ok..I embellished...but still sad.