Elephant-riding in Thailand - should it be banned ?

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Re: Elephant-riding in Thailand - should it be banned ?

Post by Beerinthemorning »

hanno wrote: Mon Dec 25, 2017 8:47 am
phuketrichard wrote: Mon Dec 25, 2017 8:24 am i have ridden elephants; Africa, Thailand and Nepal, swam with various types of sharks, manta rays and Whale sharks
more scary with the sharks, as ur not in ur own environment.
African elephants are notoriously difficult to train and there is no way I'd go near one.
as are the females in KoW
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Re: Elephant-riding in Thailand - should it be banned ?

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Worse than elephant-riding - elephant shows !
I missed this; last month Channel News Asia did a series of articles on elephants in Thailand.
I'm posting this now because I had this idea that cruel elephant shows were things of the past. Well, no. Not in Thailand anyway. The videos are pretty horrible to watch, and frankly I didn't watch to the end. You get the idea after the first few minutes.

Beasts of burden: Hooks, chains and pain - How Thailand's elephants have become symbols of despair

In the first part of a series looking at Thailand's changing relationship with its elephants, CNA explored how the animals are made to perform unnatural acts - such as dancing and painting - for people's entertainment.

BANGKOK: Kluay Hom’s world is concrete and chains. He stands in his own filth, shackled by the ankle, eyes leaden and head heavy. He tilts back and forth, his movements like a metronome on a constant loop.

Light shines into the enclosure - it is a hot day - but this emaciated shadow of what a young elephant should be will not come out. Kluay Hom’s legs are contorted and his spirit seems broken. He is eight or nine years old.

In adjoining pens, four other elephants pace back and forth, a typical symptom of stress in animals held in captivity. These are the stars of Samutprakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo, but they are generally kept away from public gaze when they are not performing.

Their home is underneath the grandstand of the dirt-covered performance arena.

The zoo, just south of Bangkok, is a relic of the past, the likes of which have been swallowed by time in many countries. Not in Thailand.

It is a place where chimpanzees sit in cages wearing human clothes and diapers and where a lethargic tiger circles on the spot struggling against the chain on its neck. Visitors can watch crocodiles being teased in murky green pools before sitting down for a crocodile meat soup at a nearby restaurant. Wooden signs with cracking paint around the complex read “Please Be Kind To Animals”.

And then there are the elephants. Under a high sun and temperatures close to 40 degrees, a performing quartet is dressed with golden sashes and bright red headpieces. As "Gangnam Style" blasts through a speaker system, the elephants perform an array of tricks: Standing on their hind legs, throwing darts at balloons, kicking footballs and painting with their trunks. It is one of seven shows they will need to repeat throughout the day.

Their tamers - known as mahouts - are always close. Poking and pressuring. They conceal sharp pieces of pointed metal in the palms of their hands. Bullhooks and nails are common tools to discipline performing elephants, with pain used to train and control. When contacted by CNA, the managing director of the facility declined to comment about how elephants are treated there.



https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/as ... g-11867874
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Re: Elephant-riding in Thailand - should it be banned ?

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LOL. Performing bear strikes back. Reminded me of those poor elephants.
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Re: Elephant-riding in Thailand - should it be banned ?

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Out-of-work elephants return to Trang
24 Apr 2020 at 12:15
writer: Methee Muangkaew

TRANG: About 60 elephants have returned to their homes in Trang from major tourism provinces because the mahouts cannot afford to feed them in the absence of tourists, caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Suchart Buakerd, chairman of the Trang elephants raisers club, said on Friday that elephants which had been working in Krabi, Phangnga and Phuket provinces had already returned to Trang province.

The mahouts feared catching the coronavirus if they stayed there. They also could not afford to feed their animals in the absence of income from tourists.

It cost 600-700 baht a day just to feed an elephant and the mahouts now had to pay for the food out of their own pockets - mainly fruit, and especially pineapples which cost one baht a kilogramme, said Mr Suchart.

Some had 3-4 elephants to care for and this involved a substantial daily cost.

He and other elephant owners decided to bring their animals back to Yan Ta Khao and Na Yong districts in Trang, and other areas in Phatthalung. He said 50-60 elephants had already arrived back in Trang.

Now, the mahouts had to find places for the elephants to stay. If they were kept near local people’s orchards or farms, this could cause problems. So they had decided to keep them near the Trang River, Mr Suchart said.

Before the outbreak of Covid-19, he had never brought his elephants back to his home province, as there was plenty of work entertaining tourists all year round in Phuket and nearby, he said.

Some elephants were still stranded in Phuket, where an elephant foundation was helping out, he said

A source said authorities had asked four mahouts to return from Bang Khan district in Nakhon Si Thammarat and submit to quarantine for 14 days at the Thalae Song Hong National Boy Scouts Camp in Huai Yot district of Trang.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... n-to-trang
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Re: Elephant-riding in Thailand - should it be banned ?

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Out-Of-Work Elephants in Thailand’s Tourism Sector Return Home to Wait Out Crisis
Busaba Sivasomboon and Grant Peck, Associated Press
- May 07, 2020 7:30 am

The millions of unemployed in Thailand due to the coronavirus include elephants dependent on tourists to feed their voracious appetites. With scant numbers of foreign visitors, commercial elephant camps and sanctuaries lack funds for their upkeep and have sent more than 100 of the animals trudging as far as 150 kilometers (95 miles) back to their homes.

The Save Elephant Foundation in the northern province of Chiang Mai has been promoting the elephants’ return to the greener pastures of home. The foundation supports fundraising appeals to feed animals still housed at tourist parks, but also believes it is good for them to return to their natural habitat where they can be more self-sufficient.

The situation is critical. London-based World Animal Protection says as many as 2,000 tame elephants are at risk of starvation because their owners are unable to feed them.

Since last month, more than 100 of the animals have marched from all over Chiang Mai to their homeland of Mae Chaem, which is dotted with villages where members of the Karen ethnic minority live and traditionally keep elephants.

Save Elephant’s founder, Saengduean Chailert, said the project to bring unemployed elephants home was launched in response to appeals from their owners.

Her group promotes settling elephants where they can live alongside villagers in sustainable eco-friendly communities. It believes the animals are abused at many high-profile tourist attractions.

Sadudee Serichevee owns four elephants in Chiang Mai’s Mae Wang district. He followed the foundation’s approach in setting up his own small Karen Elephant Experience park with elephants brought from Mae Chaem’s Ban Huay Bong, his wife’s village.

But his good intentions were no match for the coronavirus.

“At first I thought the situation would be back to normal within a month or two. At the end of April, I lost all hope,” Sadudee said.

He and his wife agreed to bring their elephants back to her village because they could no longer shoulder the monthly expenses of close to 200,000 baht ($6,250) for rental of land and facilities, salaries for handlers — known as mahouts — and food. Elephants eat as much as 300 kilograms (660 lbs) a day of grass and vegetables.

They convinced some other owners to make the 150-kilometer (95-mile) trek on foot with them. Trucking the animals is prohibitively expensive for owners of small parks, and elephants can maintain a walking speed of 7.25 kph (4.5 mph).

Their caravan of 11 elephants, their owners and their mahouts, set out on April 30, traveling over hills, on paved and dirt roads. They were greeted by a welcome-home party on their arrival at Ban Huay Bong on Monday.

“These elephants have not had a chance to return home for 20 years. They seem to be very happy when arriving home, they make their happy noises, they run to the creek near the village and have fun along with our children,” Sadudee said.

The project is also active in the northeastern province of Surin, famous for its annual elephant festival. The province’s Tha Tum district, home to hundreds of elephants, welcomed about 40 of them back last month.

“We don’t know when Covid-19 will go away,” said Save Elephant’s Saengduean. “So this is our task, to help feed the elephants that were laid off because of the outbreak.”
https://skift.com/2020/05/07/out-of-wor ... ut-crisis/
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Re: Elephant-riding in Thailand - should it be banned ?

Post by SternAAlbifrons »

“These elephants have not had a chance to return home for 20 years. They seem to be very happy when arriving home, they make their happy noises, they run to the creek near the village and have fun along with our children,” Sadudee said.

Elephants, like many other high-order animals are intelligent and require treatment, environment and complex social situations to suit their particular needs.
Please (please please) do not every pay money to have them perform for you like seals. The whole animal performing industry is predicated on cruelty and deprivation. You cannot claim to be ignorant of this today.
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Re: Elephant-riding in Thailand - should it be banned ?

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More out-of-work elephants are making the long journey home:

Jobless Pattaya elephants begin 500km walk home
published : 6 Apr 2021 at 17:33
writer: Chaiyot Pupattanapong
Image
(Photo: Chaiyot Pupattanapong)
CHON BURI: After waiting in vain for tourists near Pattaya for more than a year, five elephants and their owners are heading back to their northeastern home province of Surin – a 500km journey, on foot.

Members of five extended families were walking with their five elephants, with a pickup truck protecting the group in the front and the back, along the road beside the Map Prachan reservoir in tambon Nong Prue of Bang Lamung district on Tuesday.

Napalai Mai-ngam, 26, said five years ago she had brought her relatives and their tamed elephants from Surin to work at an elephant resort in tambon Lam Huay Yai of Bang Lamung. They had made a good living, she said, receiving a monthly salary of 15,000 baht per elephant plus tips from tourists who enjoyed riding their elephants on nature trails.

Covid-19 stopped everything in January last year. Their employer suspended paying their salaries when the Chinese tourists who formed the majority of their customers disappeared, she said.

With no immediate return of tourists in sight amid the continuing pandemic, the natives of Surin finally gave up hope and decided to go back to farming in their home province.

Ms Napalai said her group set off early on Tuesday morning when the weather was not too hot. The pachyderms would have to walk the roughly 500 kilometres to Surin because the owners could not afford to hire big trucks to carry them. The owners also hoped their elephants could feed themselvers by grazing along the way.

Ms Napalai estimated that it would take about two weeks for her group to reach their home district of Tha Tum in Surin.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... -walk-home
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Re: Elephant-riding in Thailand - should it be banned ?

Post by KTabi »

Elephants just for entertainment shows surely are treated horribly, I don't know how most people could justify it if there is any alternate way to help these people make a living.
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Re: Elephant-riding in Thailand - should it be banned ?

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KTabi wrote: Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:23 am Elephants just for entertainment shows surely are treated horribly, I don't know how most people could justify it if there is any alternate way to help these people make a living.
I agree with you, but what do you do with the elephants that nobody wants anymore ? They need a lot of food and they are probably not fit to survive in the wild.
Elephant santuaries ? But, these places usually depend on tourist money. Who's paying for them now ?
(I don't know.)
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Re: Elephant-riding in Thailand - should it be banned ?

Post by KTabi »

Anchor Moy wrote: Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:36 am I agree with you, but what do you do with the elephants that nobody wants anymore ? They need a lot of food and they are probably not fit to survive in the wild.
Elephant santuaries ? But, these places usually depend on tourist money. Who's paying for them now ?
(I don't know.)
A sanctuary would be a humane alternative that provides entertainment, I assume if everything stays on track they are serious about bringing back tourists this year. Whenever they actually have business coming back that can support such a thing would be nice but they are already in a situation where the tourists that supported them are gone I thought. I'm sure the government could put them in one in the mean time if they wanted to.
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