Elephants in Thailand

Elephants are often seen as these  mean and brutal creatures. When in fact they are just gentle giants. We hear stories about elephants going on rampages at the circus. Do you know how horrible circus elephants are treated? They are constantly stabbed in the ears, which is there most sensitive spot, just so they can carry some kids on their back. Elephants were built to pull and not to carry.

I recently came back from Thailand. I spent most of my time volunteering at an elephant nature park. The goal of this park is to help abused elephants and basically rehabilitate them. At the park, we fed the elephants, we bathed the elephants, and we nurtured the elephants. It was quite an eye opening experience. There were so many sad stories that I heard about the elephants at the park. Each elephant was so unique and indivudual. They all came with their own “baggage” of course.

Here are some of the horrible stories that these elephants went through.

Medo-

Medo was used for illegal logging in Thailand. One day she tried to escape from her owner (also known as a mahut). Her mahut shot at her ears and she fell to the ground and rolled down a steep hill. She got up slowly only to step on a land mine. The entire right side of her pelvic bone was blown off. She is now at the elephant park still in tremendous pain. She always is leaning up against something because she can’t support herself. Luckily for her, she has a friend at the park May Kun who is going blind but she still helps and lets her old friend rest on her. Medo is the eyes of May Kun. It’s a nice trade-off.

Plenty more stories coming soon.