Beautiful Elephants

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Hi everyone
Well as I mentioned in my last blog I had booked to go out to the Elephant Nature Park just out of Chiang Mai (thanks to Zoe for recommending this)....after a minibus drive out to the park, first through the outskirts of Chiang Mai city and then into the lower hill areas.....I knew that I was going to hear some sad stories but nothing prepared me for seeing the beautiful grand elephants covered in scars from the stabbing of nails that their owners has subjected them too in their old lives.

The park was started by a Thai lady called Sangduen (Lek) Chailert in an effort to help the mistreated Asian elephants. There were over 30 elephants at the park with various life stories...some of them so sad that it brought tears to my eyes while others had been born in the park and would hopefully never have to suffer. There was one poor elephant who had a broken back and a maimed back leg while another had a bad back leg and was also heavily pregnant. We were able to feed them and then wandered down to the river to bathe them.

We were also shown a video documentary of the types of mistreatment they had been subject to....this includes the process of "taming" them by chaining them in a wooden frame and poking them with nails on the end of sticks, whipping and hitting them to break them - this lasts for days sometimes weeks. They then are taught to perform tricks etc for tourists, work in the logging industry or are taken into the cities of Chiang Mai and Thailand to walk the streets making money from the tourists who pay to feed them. Elephants use their feet to sense danger etc in the jungle so in the busy streets of the city the vibrations from the road send them crazy with fear.

Ok so I promised I wouldn't ramble on the blog so I'll stop there but I just felt like I needed to tell you this and ask if you ever have the chance to come to Thailand please don't support these barbaric tourist traps and help Lek in her work to help these beautiful animals.

Thanks
Trace

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Photos

Chiang Mai - Elephant Nature Park 2
FEED ME!!!

Chiang Mai - Elephant Nature Park 3
This photo shows the scars from the poking of nails these poor animals receive as part of the "training"

Chiang Mai - Elephant Nature Park 5
Bath time

Chiang Mai - Elephant Nature Park 4
These 2 were inseperable. The elephant closest to the camera had survived a landmine explosion but had a broken back and a gammy leg as a result...poor thing.