What better way to spend Christmas Eve away from home than volunteering with rescued elephants? We spent the day at Elephant Nature Park, a wonderful sanctuary for orphaned, injured and abused elephants.
The Thai people have a very conflicted relationship with elephants. These beautiful creatures are revered as a sacred religious symbol and are considered the emblem of the country. But in reality they are routinely exploited and abused. They used to be employed in logging camps, but when logging was outlawed, many elephants were abandoned or sent to work on the streets performing for tourists and begging for money. Today they are mainly used to give tourists rides through the jungle. Sadly, most of these tourists don't realize how these elephants were treated from the time they were babies.
There is an age-old tradition when training elephants from a very young age; the intention is to break their spirit. While at the sanctuary we watched a documentary that showed some men breaking a baby elephant. It was gut wrenching. They tie it up, poke it with sharp objects until it bleeds, hit it, and confine it to a small pen until it just gives up. This goes on for weeks. It was very tough to watch. You could see the fear and pain in the elephant's eyes, and hear it cry out. Then you could just see the light go out of its eyes. It is a cruel practice, especially when you know what loving, emotonal creatures elephants are. They mourn their dead, they form friendships, they protect each other's babies. They are very much like us.
The woman who founded Elephant Nature Park is working to change how elephants are treated in her society. She wants to work with villagers and mahouts (elephant trainers) to outlaw that method. She has taken in dozens of elephants that were badly mistreated or orphaned and given them a lifetime home. Which, for an animal that can live to 70, is no small thing.
We heard many heartbreaking stories that day, but the one that brought me to tears was the story of an elephant who was working at a logging camp and was being forced to work even as she was giving birth to her baby. As the baby was born it rolled down a hill and died. The mother elephant was so distraught she refused to work for days after that. In order to make her work, her mahout blinded her in both eyes.
Man's capacity for cruelty never ceases to amaze me.
There were many other sad stories, but each of these elephants has now ended up in the happiest of places. The sanctuary is located about an hour's drive north of Chiang Mai. The elephants have an enormous property to wander around on and many friends to hang out with. Each elephant has its own mahout, but these mahouts don't carry sticks, they form a relationship based on trust with their elephant and care for them.
As volunteers for the day, we got to feed the elephants their meal of watermelon and squash. You have to put the food near the tip of their trunk and let their trunk curl around it so they can put it in in their mouths. My favorite elephant to feed was a blind one, because you had to help guide her trunk to the food in your hands, so there was a lot of contact. She was so sweet.
After feeding time, we got to take the elephants into the river and give them a bath, which required us to throw buckets full of water at them. They were very good sports.
Of course after we bathed them, they went to a big mud puddle and proceeded to cover themselves with mud, which helps protect their skin from the sun. It was a blast to sit and watch them play in the mud, especially the babies, who rolled around and sat on each other.
Being at the elephant sanctuary was such an amazing experience, I wish we'd been able to volunteer for a week. To be able to walk among these incredible animals was a dream come true.
To donate to this wonderful cause, visit www.elephantnaturepark.org.
And now on to a ridiculous number of elephant photos.
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