When I first visited Koh Samui, Thailand in 2001, I heard that one of the really fun things to do was to ride an elephant. Seeing an elephant up close and being able to touch one and feed it bananas sounded very exotic and wonderful. I paid to ride an elephant with the mahout or trainer leading the elephant along. If I had known then, what I know now, I would NEVER have done that.
In Thailand, there are 3,800 Asian elephants in captivity. Most of those are used as tourist attractions. Tourists pay to ride the elephants or to see them do tricks. The only way to make elephants do these things is to “train” them when they are little. Elephant calves are put in steel cages and tortured to make them “tame” by breaking their spirits.
Elephant Nature Park (ENP) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, was started to rescue elephants from being used to entertain tourists or from working in the logging industry. I would love to visit ENP some time. At the park, they care for 36 elephants on 250 acres of wilderness. People who go there can feed them fresh fruit, watch them play in the mud, go on walks with them and even get into the river to help give them a bath. That would be much more fun than riding an elephant. It is also good for the elephants.
Asian elephants are an endangered species. Experts believe there are now fewer than 2,000 wild elephants living in Thailand. Besides the elephants that are used for tourism, others are dying because they are losing their habitat or place to live.
You may have seen an Asian elephant at a circus in the past. In February of 2016, Ringling Brothers Circus agreed to stop using elephants to perform tricks. Instead, they are sending their 16 performing elephants to a nature preserve in Florida. That is good news for folks who care about how elephants are treated!
Do you think you would still want to ride an elephant? I am sorry I did!
hi I am Sydney did you feed the elephants
When I was in Thailand this time, I didn’t see the elephants. That was because the only place I could see them would be by doing an elephant trek. I didn’t want to do that. The elephant sanctuaries were very far away from where I was staying.
I think it’s sad that elephants are treated that way. I am not much of an elephant lover but it’s still sad. After I read your blog I don’t want to rice an elephant.
I am glad to hear that you won’t ride elephants. If you learn more about them, you just might become an “elephant lover” though. Thanks for writing, Vinya!
I’m sorry elephants are endangered (I’m not much of an elephant lover, but yeah.) . But why did you think elephant riding was horrendous?!
Great question, Khoa! The seats they put on the backs of the elephants hurt them. Also, elephants aren’t really meant to carry people. However, the biggest reason is that by riding elephants we are encouraging people in Thailand to keep “training” more baby elephants to make more money. That means they would torture more elephant calves.
Wow. Money, money, and more money. Does Thailand have to “torture” more elephants for money?!
That is really really really sad 🐘💔😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
I agree Olivia, it’s soooooo heartbreaking!!!!!😭💔💔!!! So sad!🐘. Treat animals like you want to be treated!🐘🐨🐼
It’s always animal cruelty.
Yes, it is sad. I am glad that I learned about the treatment of elephants so I didn’t ride them this time!
I feel so bad for the elephants in captivity. What I wonder is why do we always hurt animals all the time? What I like about Annie is when she stands up for the dog. I love animals so much that I walk dogs, every once and awhile I get a cat on our porch . I love animals so I had a lot of animals like 4 chickens,a dog,fish and more. Right now I have a fish named Taylor fish and a leperd geko named leppeta. The thing about reptiles is they always eat rat ,mealworms and Otheter gross stuff like that. Leppeta eats mealworms. I have a couple posters about protecting animals . How did you learn that fact about the elephants? I think animals need as much protection as they can get. About the posters I could send you some.
Unfortunately, sometimes people think of animals as things instead of as living creatures. Do you still have animals? It sounds as though you know a lot about the food chain. I learned about the elephants by talking to people who knew about them and by reading.
Thanks for the offer of the posters. Maybe you could share them with someone at your school. I don’t teach at a school any more or I would be happy to take some.
Yes I do have some animals. I have lepeta the leperd geko and some more. It would be great to show you some of my posters. Did you ever how any animas of you own. Animals are my life. To me animals make me happy . Normally if I’m ever sad I go to my pets. In my opinion my family likes lepeta the best. To me they are equal.