Saving the elephants in Thailand – travel responsibly with U.

It’s hard to imagine a Thailand without elephants – they are as much of the tourism DNA of Thailand as are the beautiful collections of archipelago islands with their golden sand beaches, clear aqua waters, warm weather and dramatic limestone cliffs. However, recent times have seen a drastic reduction in elephant numbers – from over 100,000 a century ago to approximately 3,000 today. Due almost exclusively to human intervention, the declining numbers have been a result of many different factors including poaching and animal cruelty. It’s this ‘cruelty’ we’d like to make travellers aware of before considering taking an ‘elephant ride’ in Thailand, or even visiting a mainstream elephant sanctuary.

In years gone by, elephants have always played a crucial role in Thailands daily lives. Historically and still today, elephants have been worshipped as sacred animals by the predominantly buddhist community and as such were, and still are, celebrated and respected. However, more recently, elephants have taken part in festivals and parades, been used as transport, exploited as pack animals in the logging industry, used as vehicles in war, males were poached for their ivory tusks and, finally, as tourism bloomed, elephants have been introduced into the tourism sector as riding and tourist activities, and in shows.

In the late 1980s, the Thai logging industry was rightly banned from using elephants as work animals. Ownership of elephants had become the norm during this period, so ‘owners’ turned to the emerging tourism industry and seized the opportunity to create a lucrative but uniquely Thai destination activity – elephant rides. Ask any potential Thai tourist what plans they have in Thailand, and it’s almost guaranteed to include some level of interaction with an elephant.

At U. we care about a lot of things, but we passionately care about travelling responsibly. Elephants should not be ridden or domesticated for the purpose of toursim. Here’s why:

Firstly let’s exam an elephants natural habitat – they are found most often in savannas, grasslands, and forests. Not in circuses, in pens or interacting with humans.

It is not natural for an elephant to paint, play football with giant balls, or carry people on its back. Before an elephant can be ridden or do ‘circus’ tricks like this, it must first be tamed. And to tame an animal, you must first break it. Enter the cruelty of humans for tourism dollars; first this majestic beast is stripped of its dignity through a specific process: a technique called pajaan, which is used to break the animal’s soul. This cruel method involves separating the calf from its mother and locking it in a cage without food and water for days. The elephant is brutally tortured and forcibly ridden day and night until terrified and broken inside, it submits to the human handlers.