The Whit Show: The Gental Giants of Thailand

Why do elephants paint their toenails red?

So they can hide in cheery trees….

Have you ever seen an elephant in a cheery tree??

….See, it works!

The only thing that Katie and I had planned, applied for, and set in stone before coming to Thailand was volunteering at the Elephant Nature Park (ENP) in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. The ENP is a 2000 acre sanctuary and elephant rescue/rehabilitation center set deep in the natural valley, surround by forested mountains and bordered by a river. The elephants at the park are rescued from logging, tourism, and street begging and have an opportunity to live a rural life in the sanctuary. Upon our acceptance into the week long volunteer program, I was counting down the days for this hands-on, life changing experience. We really didn’t know what to expect except that we would be definitely be shoveling poop! On our way up to the park we watch an educational video on the sanctuary, its founder Lek, and the elephants. I had no idea the abuse these gentle giants endure that we see in circus, on the streets, giving rides and preforming shows. These elephants are beat into submission until they learn to cooperate and the beating process is grueling. At a young age the elephants are chained by their necks and feet and put into a small cage and deprived of food and water for a minimum of two weeks and often longer. They are kept in these conditions until they stop fighting and lie down to submission. During the submission process they are badly beaten, whipped and burned. Watching these videos made me tear up a little because I am always to first one to run up to the elephants at the circus or on the streets asking for a picture. As long as people are paying, these elephants will continue to get beat.

Lek, the founder, and her staff have rescued over 35 elephants from all over Thailand and has been nursing them back to health and given them the opportunity to run free in a natural environment. Each elephant has its own mahout which is with the elephant day in and day out from about 7am to 6pm, working with them and teaching them based on positive reinforcement. Two of the elephants at the park are blind due to their previous owners taking a sling shot and shooting out their eyes because of misbehavior. A few others have holes in their feet from steeping on land mines and another one has a badly broken hip from abuse. The park is open year round to volunteers and gives you a unique opportunity to have hands on experience with these elephants and assist in nursing them back to health. As a volunteer your tasks can range from shoveling poop to building mud brinks.

The founder, Lek

Each week there are about 50 volunteers and the week’s book up fast. When you think of volunteering, or at least when I think of volunteering, I think of serving others out of the goodness of your heart. This program came out of both the goodness of my heart and the goodness of my check book. The week costs about 500 dollars, so yes, we had to pay them to shovel poop! Come to find out the sanctuary costs about 250,000 a year to operate and after all, it did include our lodging for the week, all of our meals, and priceless hands on interactions with the elephants.

The crew.

During our week we bathed the elephants, feed them, shoveled poop, built mud bricks, worked in the elephant vet and elephant kitchen, built concrete posts, and our main duty was to show the elephants our unconditional love. It was an amazing experience and has completely changed my view on using elephants and for that matter most animals, for tourism. I will now flight my urge to ride elephants and attend the circus in hopes that one day, if the message of elephant cruelty reaches enough people, we can stop the torture they endure.

Sadly for my own health I have had a really bad ear infection and had to make yet another trip to the hospital while at the ENP. I was out for the last two days of our week trying to nurse myself back to heath, but on a good note I was able to finish the final book of The Hunger Games trilogy!

The ENP was our last thing to do in Thailand. We have been in Thailand for a little over a month and now it is time to continue on. From here we are heading into Laos. Our journey to Laos will be interesting seeing we are taking a 3 day/2 night slow boat trip down the Mekong River.

And of course I couldn’t scoot out of Thailand without getting another rabies and tetanus shot. And after 7 shots in Thailand, I have finally completed my rabies series, WUUU WEEE rabies free!!!!!!

Peace, love and elephants,

Whitney