Our ele-love can be explained by the same human egotism that
makes us love dogs, dolphins, and apes.
Oh, look, they’re awkward smoochers.
They really are just like (some of) us!
We’re so enamored with our similarities to them that we keep
them readily available for gawking, confined and constrained in zoos, circuses,
and other attractions without, ironically, managing to find much compassion for
their obvious and profound suffering in confinement. We know their needs simply cannot be met in
these environments, but we just can’t stop ourselves from rewarding the
perpetrators of cruelty and neglect with our money. Sometimes their endangerment even creates a bizarre
demand for their demise, like when rich people decide that bluefin tuna is
really tasty or when sea turtle eggs boost virility.
Elephants have great symbolic importance in Southeast
Asia. Representations of elephants are
seen on everything, from temples to beer cans.
You know, drinking Chang beer brings good fortune and wisdom to so many people;
think of all of the great speeches, pick-up lines, and decisions that are made
with its influence!
Their strength, intelligence, and gentle nature has made
them quite handy to people. Wild and
domesticated elephants were used historically for pageantry and war, and more
recently, in logging and tourism.
Habitat loss from encroaching humans, demand for ivory, tropical wood,
elephant rides, and baby elephant ogling, and a penchant for crop nibbling have
made life difficult for them.
People looking to make a profit from elephants either snatch
babies from the jungle, often killing their mothers in the process or take babies
from mothers already in their possession.
The well exposed, but continually denied-by-governments process of “the
crush” ensures that elephants will grow up obedient. The crush involves caging and chaining young
elephants so they cannot move, depriving them of food and water, and beating
them into submission with hooks, canes, and nails. After elephants are trained, they end up on
city streets and elephant camps, doing tricks and begging for fruit from
tourists.
While the vast majority of elephant attractions in Thailand promulgate
these cruel practices, there are a handful of responsible organizations aiming
to help elephants and educate tourists about their circumstances. While I was in Chiang Mai, I had the fortune
of spending two days at the Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary for injured and
distressed elephants. And when I say
fortune, I really mean tear inducing, I-can-die-now, downright magical OMG-ness.
ENP is run by Lek Chailert, who has received a lot of
well-deserved praise for her work on behalf of Thailand’s elephants. Animal Planet, the US Humane Society, and
many others have sung praises of Lek and ENP, but the best coverage to spend
your time on is Jennifer Hile‘s National Geographic documentary, Vanishing Giants.
ENP is home to many sweet and quirky ellies with unfortunate
pasts. The suffering of some is obvious,
as is the case with the elephant who stepped on a landmine, the elephants
blinded by their mahouts as punishment, elephants with fractured pelvises and
hind legs from forced breeding, and the newborn who went without milk before
arriving at ENP and eventually died after weeks of around-the-clock care.
For all of the torment these scars represent, the ellies
spend their days walking around, swimming to get clean, promptly getting dirty,
sniffing things high and low, playing, and searching for and chowing down on pumpkins, bananas,
and pineapples. One of my favorite signs
at the park identifies some of the elephants with two photos each: one of their
faces and one of their feces. Apparently
elepoop is quite the individual identifier and gives the talented sniffers lots
of information about each other. Elepoop
is also known for its unique composition of quite a lot of undigested pumpkin,
banana, and pineapple and just a little actual poop, making it a favorite distasteful, but fruity snack of the dozens of dogs who call the park home.
I spent the two days with three lovely couples and an
awesome guide. We met, fed, and bathed
the elephants, competed with lots of confident dogs for a space at the dinner
table, and enjoyed all-vegetarian buffets of amazing Thai dishes. At night, we marveled at the complete
blackness of the cloudy sky, the intense motivation of Thai mosquitoes, and the
racetrack buzz of frogs who were targeted by hunters’ distant flickering
flashlights. After we went to bed, I
struggled to sleep throughout the night- something about giddy reflections on
my elephant interactions… or animals crunking on the tin roof… or the escaped, musth-y1
teenaged boy elephant attempting to grunt his way into a pretty girl’s
heart. Elephants sound like tigers when trying to pick up chicks.
1Musth is a period
of girl-craziness in which male testosterone levels are about 100 times greater
than normal… lock ‘em up, elemoms!)
Our second day at the park was totally amazing. We spent hours in the fields, traipsing
through the mud, just watching the elephants do their thing. Here are some photos from the
morning:
And because saggy elebutts obviously deserve their own section:
In the afternoon, we bathed and fed the elephants
again. They don't waste time reapplying their sunscreen. Then, our guide took us river
tubing (sequel: planes, trains, automobiles, and tubing), ending back at the park where we got to watch elephants swimming and playing with their mahouts. At the other side of the river, the herd with
the youngest elephants also took a dip.
There are no shortages of opportunities to patronize
businesses that harm animals, in Thailand and around the world. Many tourists mindlessly pay to pose with
tiger cubs, ride elephants, and swim with dolphins. I even went to a store in Chiang Mai that was
selling ivory pendants carved into the shape of elephants. When I asked the store manager why they would
have such a thing, he said, “many people want it.” Perhaps elephant rides are obvious examples
of exploitative animal tourism (even the American Association of Zoos and
Aquariums, not famous for its progress on animal welfare, is against
elephant rides), but here’s a handy guide to sniff out problematic animal attractions at home and abroad.
And of course, more pictures:
And of course, more pictures:
