Heart-break in Bangkok

Yes finaly I get my heart broken in Thailand, and everyone will say I should've known better but who does.

I was staying in a different part of town than where I usually stay in Bangkok, quite close to the main tourist mecca's, anyway I went out for a stroll one evening and found myself in the thick of things in Soi Arab.

Very soon I found myself pressed up against a truck on the pavement by the seething crowds, the truck was selling what looked like lychees on steroids, rambutans and mangosteens, I had no where to go so decided to buy some.

As I was looking over the fruit I suddenly felt a soft warm little hand press into mine. It felt like the hand of a little child. When I looked down I saw a hairy little head and the the hand was reaching up to my arm, it was a little baby elephant asking for some fruit.

I must say It was quite a shock, and disgust and heart-ache very quickly followed. The baby elephant was tiny it couldn't have been much older than a year. The frightened and bullied little infant was being driven through the crowds by two youths with a sharp hook stopping for paid photo opportunities with tourists as they went.

Please do not ever pay people like this and let your anger be known. The middle of Bangkok is not the place for a baby elephant or any elephant for that matter, babies should be with their mothers and not paraded through crowds of tourists in the middle of the night.

I can only imagine it had been trucked in under cover and off loaded where ever tourists were plentiful, this is illegal and quite rightly so, so please do not patronise them in any form.

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[Patexpat]

I agree with Cedric that it is cruel to use animals in this way. Elephants have been banned in Pattaya/Jomtien for some time .... and the police do seem to enforce this rule ... so imagine ...

Sitting on the balcony at Ozz bar having a quiet drink and chatting, when a baby elephant and mahout wanders down the soi blagging off of tourists. General observations were that 'haven't seen an elephant here for ages' 'on so cute' etc etc.

After a few minutes, the mahout and his baby elephant come back down the soi, at a brisk walking pace. A few quizical looks around the table.

Pause for a sip of G+T.

Next we are treated to the sight of the baby elephant running BACK down the soi (no mahout) with police pickup in hot pursuit, lights flashing and at the end of the soi performing a first class boxing-in maneuver after which the elephant was apprehended.

Just another night out in Jomtien .... :king:

[x in pattaya]

Practically speaking there's little you can do about individual cases, but you can support groups that do work to improve the lives of both elephants and their mahouts:

LAMPANG ELEPHANT CAMP







Who knows? Maybe you can adopt a mahout.

Actually baby elephants are trained in Thailand using quite barbaric techniques that involve physical and mental torture like sleep deprivation, constant and severe beating, constant fear. Its a technique used to cause the total collapse of the little animals heart and soul so it has no other option but to surrender to the horrific onslaught. Even babies are treated to regular stabs with a spike, the same the boy has in his hand in the picture above.

Of course more friendly and loving techniques have never been tried and to change these traditional ideas is near impossible. I think people should be aware of this and the fact that it's illegal and not support elephants being used in this way at all.

I wont even go near those elephant parks where elephants are used to entertain tourists for rides or trecks. Due to the ban on logging in Thailand many have ended up there who would otherwise be neglected for lack of money. But they are far from a place of sanctuary despite what they seem, the elephants are routinely abused their whole lives. It is considered that if you stop the abuse the elephant will think you've lost and wreck havoc.

Only little solace and its not much given the long life of suffering these animals lead is that eventually quite a few mahouts do get their comeuppance when the elephants finaly snap and crush them or a tourist to death, unfortunately it's often not the same mahout that did all the hurt but it must be a blessed release.

[x in pattaya]

Actually when looking for the link I wanted I Googled "Lampang" and "Elephant," and didn't pay attention to where I ended up. I blame the shirtless mahout who distracted me.

I meant to connect the the foundation established by H.M the Queen and recognized by the WWF.

I agree that in almost any context in Thailand elephants are being at least misused if not abused, but simply turning your back on it all and refusing to engage those who do deal with the animals is not going to improve things. Education is needed and there needs to be an economic impetus to encourage people to change their ways.

This approach has worked in various places in Africa ... not without set backs ... with reasonable success. There's no magic wand that will make it all better, but steps in the right direction are possible.

ELEPHANT REINTRODUCTION FOUNDATION


ELEPHANT NEWS

Shortly after the State Visit of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II and H.R.H. Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh to Thailand in 1996, H.M. Queen Sirikit announced her intention to initiate an elephant reintroduction project, to offer an alternative future for domestic elephants, one in which they will live out their remaining life in the forest, away from humans, as nature intended.

The reintroduction process started on 14th January 1997 when Her Majesty Queen Sirikit released the first three elephants - Bualoi, Boonmee and Malai. The second release of two elephants - Sangwan and Khamnoi, was made by Her Majesty on 10th February 1998. Then on 19th February 1999 Her Majesty also released Khammoon and Plaisong. In 2000, Her Majesty presided over the entry of a further 16 elephants into the release programme, and in 2001, H.M. Queen Margarethe and H.R.H. Prince Henrik of Denmark (President of WWF Denmark) released one additional elephant, Boonrawd.

On 13 May 2002, H.R.H Prince Philip granted an audience to the Thai Prime Minister H.E. Taksin Shinawatra, at Buckingham Palace. HRH discussed elephant conservation in Thailand with the Prime Minister, and praised the initiative of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, in starting the reintroduction project. H.R.H Prince Philip wrote a letter to Queen Sirikit, offering WWFs support to establish the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation, and the Foundation was legally registered on August 9th 2002.

I must agree, parading elephants around Bangkok to the musings of tourists is, in fact, cruelty to animals. Mind you, these are not wild elephants. These are broken elephants.

And I am curious to ask dear Cedric:

What is the difference between broken elephants on Bangkok streets with skinny mahoots riding atop and broken ponies or horses on London or NYC streets? Is a poor broken horse with some 200 lb mountie bouncing on its back cruelty to animals, as well?

Don't you know, Pon, that so-called animal rights people care much more about cute animals -- like ellies and doggy woggies and catsy watsies -- than they do about run-of-the-mill animals like horses, pigs, cows, and rats.

I must agree, parading elephants around Bangkok to the musings of tourists is, in fact, cruelty to animals. Mind you, these are not wild elephants. These are broken elephants.

And I am curious to ask dear Cedric:

What is the difference between broken elephants on Bangkok streets with skinny mahoots riding atop and broken ponies or horses on London or NYC streets? Is a poor broken horse with some 200 lb mountie bouncing on its back cruelty to animals, as well?

Well you've asked the right person as I am a keen rider and am very fond of the horse. However I can't chat until tomorrow but suffice to say riding is not necessarily the problem, positive reinforcement is not breaking an animal etc

The programme to introduce work elephants into a safe free environment sounds very worthy indeed.

[Khor tose]

Don't you know, Pon, that so-called animal rights people care much more about cute animals -- like ellies and doggy woggies and catsy watsies -- than they do about run-of-the-mill animals like horses, pigs, cows, and rats.

As a lover of "foie gras" I sure wish they did not care so much about geese/ducks--which are hardly cute animals.

Of course more friendly and loving techniques have never been tried and to change these traditional ideas is near impossible.

As far as I am aware elephant training methods are similar worldwide - while not being that well informed on the subject I have seen elephant training in Chiang Mai and in Nepal (Chitwan) and the methods used appear very similar. I can recommend reading Queen of the Elephants by Mark Shand, about Parbati Barua, for an insight into elephant training.

I have a fair amount of horse riding experience, including 3 day eventing at Hickstead (and yes, I do know Douglas Bunn died last month), and I can assure you that the term breaking a horse is used for a reason. Desite that, Ponbkk,"the difference between broken elephants on Bangkok streets with skinny mahoots riding atop and broken ponies or horses on London or NYC streets" is that, at least in London, riding horses on public streets is strictly controlled and it generally costs their owners/riders a considerable amount of money for the privilege, while those taking elephants on the streets of Bangkok do so in order to make money, for no other reason.