There is the New Here: 17) The Elephant Nature Park

3/17-3/18

The state of the elephant in Thailand is not good. It’s dire. Basically, it goes like this… Elephants have been used for generations in the logging industry. We’re talking hundreds of years or more. In the late 1980’s they banned logging to conserve forests across much of southeast Asia, thereby leaving thousands of elephants out of work. Some went into the entertainment industry, but we’re talking elephant rides and circus tricks, not 3 shows a day at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City.

The rest were set free into the wild. Since then, nearly all of the wild elephants have died. Between poachers and a lack of sustainable land, being “wild” these days is a death sentence. But the other option is not much better. To train the elephants to do shows, paint, etc, they are broken through a barbaric process using knives, sharp sticks and the likes to destroy their bodies and warp their fragile little minds.

In many cases the elephants are blinded into submission or are forced to work while pregnant (which often kills the babies as fetuses). They are generally turned into underfed, under-nourished zombies. And there-in lies the rub: They either live shit lives in chains or die in the wild. Not the best of options.

Enter Lek Chailert. She runs and elephant rescue center (the only of its kind in all of Southeast Asia) built on a simple principal that balances morality and good business. The idea is that tourists want to engage with elephants in a more “natural” setting than a 30 minute circus show or ride, and that they will pay more to see happy, healthy elephants in a quasi-natural habitat than they will to see an elephant kick a soccer ball.

I spent two days with Lek on her 50-acre reserve and had a really amazing time. If you plan to go to Thailand, I highly recommend it. Their hearts are in the right place, but their business model (if you can call it that) is for shit. They need business minded people to offer their services and of course they need money to keep 35 elephants and 90 staff up and running. But if they can prove that the demand is there then other parks will inevitably appear and their may be a prayer left for these beautiful creatures. Yeah I said beautiful creatures; wanna fight about it?

Check out Lek’s park at: http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/

And check these out too. Thanks.

The mahouts (pronounced ma-hoot). Each elephant ha a dedicated personal guide called a mahout that stay with them for years. Most are Burmese at the Park. I love the name mahout. Every stray dog I meet I now call mahout.

Playing in the mud

As “paying volunteers” we washed and fed them. Giving an elephant a bath is something I will never forget

Me and Max, the tallest elephant on record in Asia

A move I call the Jon Cobb-using a tree as a scratching post. Made me miss the big guy.

They also took in stray/abused dogs. This is what 30 dogs feeding at once looks like. Don’t even think of getting in there. They’ll take you out without blinking.

Elephant vs Dog. The dogs charged in a pack.

The elephants retaliated

Feeding time

Today’s moment of Claw (deep breath edition). Look at this smile on this guy’s face! He's hanging low and loving it! I suppose I would have at least a grin if my dick reached the floor and everyone knew it. At that point you just start parading like there’s no tomorrow.