Thailand and Elephants
If you are going to Thailand, seeing elephants from up close must be one of the top things to do on your list. Before you invest any money in this activity, you should take the time to research the elephant camp you going to visit to avoid contributing to animal cruelty. is it safe to ride elephants? is it okay to use elephants for entertainment? this is a very delicated subject and very important aswell.
Animal cruelty is not only when animals are hurt by physical abuse but also when they are enslaved and kept in small cages for many hours everyday and forced to do things that they do not want to do. Killing their souls is the same as killing their body. If you love or care about elephants do not ride elephants and do not give your money to places where they are used like amusement rides. in the following article, I will share with you my personal experience that I encountered when I visited Thoms Pai elephant camp in the town of Pai in Thailand. After my story you will understand why I do not recommend riding elephants.
Before choosing my elephant camp, I did a lot of research and read many good reviews in Trip Advisor about Thoms Pai Elephant Camp. Most probably, the postive reviews came from people who didnt care about the animals. They just care about their instagram pictures. I booked with them for an hour elephant ride and swim with the elephant.
When I arrived, I quickly noticed that the elephants were in very small cells and some of them had chains attached to their necks and legs. They seem healthy but had no room to walk or move freely. The trainer greeted us and introduced us to our elephant for the next hour. The elephant seemed agitated and wasn't cooperating with its trainer. Our guide helped us climb to the elephant and we began our ride to the river. The elephant had to walk a hot cement road in which he clearly didn’t want to go. The trainer then began to poke him and yelling at the elephant to force him to keep walking. Imagine how many times a day, a week or in a month this elephant had to do this walk against his will.
When we finally arrived to the river, the elephant did not want to go in the water at all. I told the trainer that it was fine, that we didn’t have to swim but the trainer insisted saying that it was okay and that the elephant loves to swim. After many minutes of yelling and pushing the elephant, the trainer climbed on top of the elephant and poked his head with a bullhook that made a little hole in his skin. The poor elephant finally submitted and slowly went in the water step by step. The elephant was very agitated and threw himself down in the water. Then he rolled on his side and wanted to roll on his back to get us off him. The trainer started yelling at the elephant and poking him with his bullhook but the elephant refused to stand up. He stayed down waiting for us to get off him and slowly started to roll on his back. We notice his upset reaction and we quickly jumped off the elephant. I think he would've squished us if we didn’t jump off. As soon as we got off the elephant, he began to calm down. The trainer spent several minutes trying to control the elephant. After some time, the trainer asked us to go on top of him again to go back to the camp but we refused and decided to walk instead. The elephant seem alot happier now.
When we got back to the camp, a friend of the owner who was around his 50’s heard our conversation about how upsetting we were. I told him about our experience but he quickly began to defend the camp and said that it was better keeping the elephants in chains and cages than letting them be free and get killed by poachers who trade their skin. What he didn’t realize, its that they are not killing these elephants physically but they are killing their souls, which is the same thing. The elephants are not there because they want to but because they are forced to. As soon as I started arguing with the owner, something extraordinary happened, the elephants began to grab their chains with their trunks, shaking their heads and they even tried to open their gates. It was a very deep touching moment, we all realized they could feel our energies. They were trying to tell us that they wanted to be free. They could understand what was happening, elephants are very smart animals. Even the old man understood their message and he couldn’t say anything to make the camp look good. The elephants showed him that they rather be free, than enslaved and force to do things they do not want to do.
In conclusion, the best advice I can give is not to ride elephants, do not go to places where they make them do tricks such as drawing, play soccer or where they are kept in very small cells in chains. These elephants need alot of room to move freely. If you truly care about such a magnificent gentle animal do not give your money to places like Thoms Pai elephant camp. Instead pay a little bit more and go to the sanctuaries where they have plenty of space to walk and they do not ride them. You can truly see elephants are happy in those sanctuaries.
If you liked our article please share it with your friends so everyone it's aware of this problem. You can make a difference by informing people so they do not make the same mistake as I did.
DONATE TODAY
Your donation and gift will make a difference in keeping the content of Crystal Dreams available to the public. We have no third party advertisement on our website.
Thank you for your support!
