Everyone wants to ride elephants in Thailand. When I first arrived, I wanted to as well. Imagine how incredible it would be to sit atop a 10 foot tall, 4 ton beast, trekking your way through deep rivers and pristine jungles. I held onto this urge until I spent the day at an elephant sanctuary and learned the disturbing truth.
Mae Taeng, Thailand
This was an experience many dream about when visiting Thailand. I couldn’t wait to get my opportunity to ride on top of a massive elephant!
However, there is a dark side to elephant tourism that many people just don’t seem to be aware of…
Happy Elephant Home
Happy Elephant Home is a natural sanctuary tucked away in the beautiful jungles of Northern Thailand. Their mission is to protect & care for mistreated elephants rescued from the tourism. Increasing awareness and promoting sustainable elephant-friendly tourism is their ancillary goal.
When I first arrived at Happy Elephant Home, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. How close could we get to the elephants? Could we touch them? Were they dangerous?
Asian Elephants are Endangered
At Happy Elephant Home, you get to participate in numerous fun activities with the elephants. I was able to feed them fresh bananas & sugar cane out of the palm of my hand, watch them play in the mud, go on walks with them, and even get into the river to wash them!
It is a magical experience watching these gentle creatures interact with each other!
The elephants communicate through chirping and trumpeting back and forth. Witnessing this creates a greater appreciation for how intelligent and social these creatures really are.
You won’t find any elephant rides at Happy Elephant Home. No circus tricks or elephants painting either because the elephants here have been rescued from such places.
The Endangered Asian Elephant
Experts believe there are now less than 2000 wild elephants living in Thailand. The population is declining at a rapid rate due to loss of habitat.
In the tourism industry, illegal capture and trade for use is a huge problem!
This industry thrives because foreign visitors want to ride elephants and watch them do tricks, and they will pay good money for the privilege.
Wild elephants need to be tamed before they can be ridden. This taming process in Southeast Asia is not the same as with a wild horse. It’s extremely brutal, and done while the elephants are very young.
Wash Elephants, Don’t Ride Them!
Baby Elephant Torture
Wild elephants will not let humans ride on top of them. In order to tame a wild elephant, it is tortured as a baby to completely break its spirit. The process is called Phajaan, or “the crush”.
This process involves ripping baby elephants away from their mothers and confining them in a very small space, like a cage or hole in the ground where they’re unable to move.
The baby elephants are then beaten into submission with clubs, pierced with sharp bull-hooks, and simultaneously starved and deprived of sleep for many days!
Here is a video: Elephant Torture if you’re curious. It should go without saying, this video is tough to watch.
Photographer Brent Lewin won an award for capturing an image of the torture and exposing the truths about the Thai/Burmese Elephant Trade: Elephant Torture.
Thailand Elephant Trekking
After they have been tamed, the elephant mistreatment does not stop. Many elephant camps continue to employ bull-hooks to control the animals. While they may not be stabbing them constantly like they did in training, it’s the fear of being stabbed that’s used to motivate them to work.
Elephants never forget…
Travel Tip: If an elephant camp in Southeast Asia is claiming to be “responsible” with it’s animals, you should still be skeptical. The process used to train them is often the same, even if they’re treated with kindness now. There is no way to be absolutely certain.
Riding elephants can cause serious long-term harm! Their spines are not made to support the weight of humans. I know it’s hard to believe given their enormous size.
Baby Elephant grabbed my Go-Pro with his trunk
Save the Elephants
The Happy Elephant Home provides day trips and week-long volunteer opportunities that allow tourists to interact with and learn about elephants in a responsible way.
The fees collected go toward feeding and caring for the massive creatures, purchasing additional elephants from their abusive owners, and expanding the size of the sanctuary.
Elephants Enjoy Sunsets Too!
Make Your Choice and Don’t Ride!
For hundreds of years, brutal elephant training has been a traditional practice in Southeast Asia. The major problem these days is that most captive elephants in Thailand are used to entertain tourists rather than for traditional purposes like logging and military use.
It’s our demand for elephant rides and circus acts that leads to more baby elephants getting captured, tortured, and sold off for entertainment.
90% of people who participate in elephant tourism in Thailand are completely unaware of how they are treated. I have many friends who have ridden elephants by accident. It’s easy to understand why people do it. I almost rode them myself!
Hope this information helps on your next trip to Thailand. I just wanted to share my elephant experience so you have a first-hand example of the real truth.
