Elephant Nature Park: More than Just a Park, An Elephant Haven
WARNING: Extremely wordy post and has some disturbing content. Scroll down to pictures for happy part of post. Haha.
Although it happened more than a year ago, I still can remember the feeling of elephant skin against my hand. The little stubbles of hair tickling my palm while I gently move my hand over their long and majestic trunks. They are enormous creatures but yet they can very gentle and calm and almost soundless.
 |
Here is a baby elephant napping. In the background you can see her aunty standing over her, protecting her. On the left hand side you can see a bluffy capture of the Park's founder Lek. She sang the baby elephant to sleep while fanning her.
|
The park boasts acres of land in the hilly region of Chiang Mai. It is home to over 80 retired, once neglected or abused elephants or those who were used for street begging. The park has banned the use of the sharp tools you often see in the mahout's (elephant rider) possession used to hit the elephants head to control them. The park's founder, Lek, believes that love and nurturing, similar to that of the way we love our pets and train them with treats would work the same with the gentle giants.
How elephants are traditionally trained:
This process is called
Pajaan training. It's extremely cruel and it works by breaking the beast's spirit in order to tame the them.
Imagine when you were a toddler, still breast feeding and you were suddenly taken away from your mother and restrained in a cage. You are all alone and there are 20 over men, young boys to old men surrounding you with a sharp hook. Yelling at you and probbing you repeatedly till you bleed. You are not fed, not allowed to drink, not allowed to sleep for 3 days and nights. Through out you have been stabbed and forced to bow down to the orders of a steel hook.
This summarizes what Pajaan training is and it has been used for centuries, back when elephants were used for war. Now their strength and might are still used for illegal logging in Thailand. They are often overworked and they will eventually refuse work from exhaustion. They are subject to further abuse by their owners such as blinding them. It's really sad how sometimes man can be so cruel and heartless.
Some of the parks elephants like the one in the picture above are born there and have never suffered human abuse or torture. A large number of the elephants there have been blinded by abuse or from the nature of their work.
Basically, as an animal lover. Elephant Nature Park is really the place to be.
Programme outline:
7 days of volunteer work around the park!
Duties range from
1. Feeding
2. Bathing
3. Shelter cleaning
 |
| People give me a lot of grief for my yellow boots.. But they are just safety precautions!! |
4. Construction - making bricks out of mud!! How cool is that?
 |
| We made bricks out of mud and grains mixed together. each mud block is sun dried and they are very large and heavy!! They are then used to make guest houses for the guests coming to the park. |
5. Hay stacking - the park also rescues cows and dogs from the Bangkok flood. We stack the hay onto the back of a truck and and transport them to the cows and we literally ride on top of the hay holding on the the side rails and each other. We also had to duck from plants and trees along the road sides! It was super fun. You'll never experience this in a city.
6. Playing with dogs.
 |
| The park has a large dog shelter on one side. These are the dogs that are quite sociable so they let them roam around the park! So gangsta. We eat on these tables. |
7. Education - detrimental effects of elephant riding / street begging / circus shows etc
They also only serve vegetarian food there which may sound a little off putting but they really serve up delicious food and you will forget about KFC or McDonald's.
I can't wait to go back there this year end! I am also going to build a road at a village. Support our cause by purchasing moon cakes from us!
Email treesntrunks13@gmail.com to order!!
Thanks for reading ^^
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Here's a picture of my lovely puff ball, Cuddles!
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Elephant Nature Park: More than Just a Park, An Elephant Haven
Thursday, September 12, 2013 | 4:26 PM |
0
WARNING: Extremely wordy post and has some disturbing content. Scroll down to pictures for happy part of post. Haha.
Although it happened more than a year ago, I still can remember the feeling of elephant skin against my hand. The little stubbles of hair tickling my palm while I gently move my hand over their long and majestic trunks. They are enormous creatures but yet they can very gentle and calm and almost soundless.
|
Here is a baby elephant napping. In the background you can see her aunty standing over her, protecting her. On the left hand side you can see a bluffy capture of the Park's founder Lek. She sang the baby elephant to sleep while fanning her.
|
The park boasts acres of land in the hilly region of Chiang Mai. It is home to over 80 retired, once neglected or abused elephants or those who were used for street begging. The park has banned the use of the sharp tools you often see in the mahout's (elephant rider) possession used to hit the elephants head to control them. The park's founder, Lek, believes that love and nurturing, similar to that of the way we love our pets and train them with treats would work the same with the gentle giants.
How elephants are traditionally trained:
This process is called
Pajaan training. It's extremely cruel and it works by breaking the beast's spirit in order to tame the them.
Imagine when you were a toddler, still breast feeding and you were suddenly taken away from your mother and restrained in a cage. You are all alone and there are 20 over men, young boys to old men surrounding you with a sharp hook. Yelling at you and probbing you repeatedly till you bleed. You are not fed, not allowed to drink, not allowed to sleep for 3 days and nights. Through out you have been stabbed and forced to bow down to the orders of a steel hook.
This summarizes what Pajaan training is and it has been used for centuries, back when elephants were used for war. Now their strength and might are still used for illegal logging in Thailand. They are often overworked and they will eventually refuse work from exhaustion. They are subject to further abuse by their owners such as blinding them. It's really sad how sometimes man can be so cruel and heartless.
Some of the parks elephants like the one in the picture above are born there and have never suffered human abuse or torture. A large number of the elephants there have been blinded by abuse or from the nature of their work.
Basically, as an animal lover. Elephant Nature Park is really the place to be.
Programme outline:
7 days of volunteer work around the park!
Duties range from
1. Feeding
2. Bathing
3. Shelter cleaning
|
| People give me a lot of grief for my yellow boots.. But they are just safety precautions!! |
4. Construction - making bricks out of mud!! How cool is that?
|
| We made bricks out of mud and grains mixed together. each mud block is sun dried and they are very large and heavy!! They are then used to make guest houses for the guests coming to the park. |
5. Hay stacking - the park also rescues cows and dogs from the Bangkok flood. We stack the hay onto the back of a truck and and transport them to the cows and we literally ride on top of the hay holding on the the side rails and each other. We also had to duck from plants and trees along the road sides! It was super fun. You'll never experience this in a city.
6. Playing with dogs.
|
| The park has a large dog shelter on one side. These are the dogs that are quite sociable so they let them roam around the park! So gangsta. We eat on these tables. |
7. Education - detrimental effects of elephant riding / street begging / circus shows etc
They also only serve vegetarian food there which may sound a little off putting but they really serve up delicious food and you will forget about KFC or McDonald's.
I can't wait to go back there this year end! I am also going to build a road at a village. Support our cause by purchasing moon cakes from us!
Email treesntrunks13@gmail.com to order!!
Thanks for reading ^^
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