5 MORE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP.
DO THE RESEARCH
You can avoid being mislead by organizations that do more harm than good by doing your research. The more you know about the suffering involved, the more aware and educated you become in your choices. As travelers, it is our responsibility to be informed and to make the right choices that benefit wildlife.
DON’T RIDE ELEPHANTS
An encounter with exotic animals makes its way onto many a traveler’s Bucket List. Unfortunately, all too often, the need for a unique travel experience and a great profile pic is put before animal welfare. It might seem natural when traveling to places where elephants are indigenous to want to be near them, and specifically to ride them, because we have been conditioned to believe that it is ok. What we don’t know is how they got in the position to be ridden in the first place or what the reality of their lives is really like.
Wild elephants won't let humans ride on top of them. So in order to tame a wild elephant, first it is broken to experience the pain of the phajaan process. Over this time baby elephants are starved, shackled, and beaten, until their spirit is completely broken and will submit to the will of their captors. Once young elephants have undergone this process they can begin learning to serve. This process is common place for all elephants in captivity throughout Asia.
We encourage finding alternate ways to experience these majestic beauties.
CHOOSE SADDLE OFF PROGRAMS
The best way to experience these majestic beauties is to visit an ethical elephant sanctuary and observe them living in beautiful natural surroundings. Watch elephants socialize, play, and forage – freed from elephant riding, performing tricks, and other unnatural behavior. More than 30 independent projects are now providing a better life for these gentle giants and the demand is on the rise.
By visiting ethical elephant sanctuaries, you are helping to reshape expectations of what visitors to Southeast Asia consider desirable when it comes to elephant tourism. Your choice confirms that there are many people who want to observe elephants doing what comes naturally, without fear of punishment. Elephants are intelligent, social, empathic beings deserving of our respect, care, and admiration.
For a list of ethical, saddle-off programs now available, click below.
Don’t Support The Circus
Circus animals, including elephants, are stolen from their herds and confined virtually all of their lives in barren conditions, while forced to suffer extreme physical and psychological deprivation.
Virtually 96 percent of their lives are spent in chains or cages.
11 months a year they travel over long distances in box cars with no climate control; sleeping, eating, and defecating in the same cage.
When allowed out, these animals are trained using extreme "discipline" such as whipping, hitting, poking, and shocking with electrical prods.
There are many different ways to experience these animals, but paying for them to entertain us not is one of them and contributes to the perpetuation of cruelty.
Look For Signs Of Mistreatment
If you see elephants being kept in chains who bear the scars of these chains around their ankles, that’s a red flag. If you see mahouts with bull hooks in their hands, that’s a red flag. If you see an elephant perform a behavior it would never in the wild (i.e. twirling a hulu hoop on its nose, or bowing to an audience, or using a paintbrush), that’s a red flag. Elephants are incredibly intelligent beings, and with this in mind can you really believe that they would turn themselves into clowns for our entertainment if not being trained via torture to do so?
“If We Want To Protect Them, We Have To Do It Right Now. “
-LEK CHAILERT, Founder of Elephant Nature Park & Save Elephant Foundation
LEK CHAILERT
Dedicated to change.
LEK CHAILERT is a world renowned conservationist and founder of Save Elephant Foundation and Elephant Nature Park.
Since 1996, Lek has devoted her life to the conservation of elephants, now considered an endangered species. She has rescued 200+ distressed elephants in Thailand and neighboring countries.
There are currently fewer than 3,000 elephants living in the forests of Thailand, compared to 4,000 in captivity. Lek began advocating for elephants after hearing the cries of a wounded elephant being forced to haul logs in the jungle as a young girl, and the demand for her impactful work only continues to grow as the demand for elephant tourism thrives.
Lek’s life work has received international acclaim and has been documented by Discovery Channel, National Geographic, BBC, CBS, Animal Planet and CNN. She has been a Time Magazine Hero of Asia and was recognized as a Hero of Global Conservation by former President Barack Obama.
Photograph of Lek Chailert taken at Elephant Nature Park by celebrity photographer, Kwaku Alston
“FIRST THING IS WE HAVE TO HEAL WITH LOVE AND LET NATURE REHAB THEM. WE HAVE TO MAKE THEM FEEL THAT HOME IS A SAFE PLACE FOR THEM. TRUST IS THE FIRST THING THAT WE CAN GIVE THEM.”