AMAZING EXPERIENCES

Elephant Nature Preserve

The highlight of our time in Chiang Mai was our day with the elephants at the Elephant Nature Park. This is a conservation center started by Sangduen Chailert (Lek) with an aim to provide a sanctuary and rescue center for elephants in Thailand. Although the elephant is revered in Thai culture, they are horrifically mistreated in reality. They are systematically tortured for days or even weeks in order to "break" them and make them follow orders from their mahouts (keepers) so they can be used for logging, tourist trekking or begging. The elephants are abused, starved, not given proper medical attention and deprived of their family units that they hold dear.

Lek's goal is to rescue as many elephants as possible and to change the tradition of putting elephants through the torturous phaajaan "training" method. She has come across many stumbling blocks, most notably the Thai government who will not admit that this takes place and is unwilling to do anything to protect this swiftly dwindling population.

Sarah and I went out to spend a day watching the elephants be elephants. They were so amazingly beautiful and loving. They are very much like humans in many respects. They have family units, they love babies, they are very focused on eating, they play tricks on each other, they mourn their dead, and so much more. We loved learning about these beautiful creatures and being a part of their lives for a day. It was difficult to learn about the cruelty these animals have to endure at the hands of some horrid people, but raising awareness is their goal and we hope to spread our knowledge to others. We want to encourage people to not go on an elephant trek or pay to watch an elephant do tricks on the street. This just enables a bad situation to continue.

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