Animal Writings

Cultural Traditions Engendering Abuse: Elephant Crushing and Street Elephants in Thailand

I have been writing and speaking on behalf of captive elephants in the United States. Some 600 elephants are in circuses, zoos, magic acts, or other small menageries in America and even though they receive rudimentary protection from the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), they have crushingly restricted lives. It is largely the arcane tradition of animal circuses that is culpable for the imprisonment of these 600 elephants. I will be speaking at the United States National Animal Rights Convention in Washington D.C. in August, 2008, and captive elephants remain one of my central foci; however, my elephant research has taken me to other arenas of elephant suffering and I have recently learned of "street elephants" used in urban Thailand and other places. It would do well to take a moment and think of these highly endangered Asian elephants and their particular plight. In the current animal advocacy world, much work is being done educating the public about mass confinement factory farming, the fur industry, veganism, and the like. This is wonderful. Nevertheless, I have noticed that the plight of the performing elephant (and other performing animals) tend to not get as much focus and in America, the street elephant of Thailand—though the recipient of National Geographic's attention—is virtually unheard of. They are suffering, and we should learn about them.

Street elephants are bought by Thai citizens and used to perform tricks on the streets of Bangkok and other cities. Elephants have not evolved to live and work in an urban environment with constant traffic and tourist noise, exhaust fumes, and subject to people with little or no formal training in proper elephant care. Akin to the carriage ride horses forced to work in urban environments such as New York, this atmosphere is atrocious for these kind elephant individuals who need vast spaces to walk and need their close family units for social development and care. Never intending to stereotype any groups, undoubtedly some of these elephants' keepers –or mahouts- undoubtedly care a great deal for these animals and attempt to give them proper care. Nonetheless, a preponderance of horrendous stories of neglect and abuse exist regarding these captive elephants. Before further discussion regarding street elephants, it is useful to point out that street elephants are rather docile and tame, and the method in which that tameness is acquired is disturbing. I recently learned of a technique called "crushing."

Away from the cities in rural Thailand, to domesticate elephants a device called a "crush" is often utilized. It is a large steel contraption which holds the elephant secure. While immobilized, village men drive nails into the elephant's ears and feet and there is no dearth of villagers who are willing to help in this process as it is a long tradition and seen as vital to the survival of their economy. Along with this pain application, sleep-deprivation, hunger, and thirst are utilized in order to break the elephant and make it manageable by its owners. The efficacy of these techniques is absolute; with enough pain the elephants submit and become docile most every time. As reported in National Geographic's online edition, elephants have helped make Thailand a prosperous country with their sacrifices. The country's elephant population has been reduced to five percent of what it once was and of the remaining 6,000 around half of them are domesticated. Animal advocacy minded activists and thinkers question how this method of crush training the elephant honors the animals that they claim to highly regard. The elephant crush largely only exists in rural villages throughout Asia and still is used despite widespread and vocal protest from animal rights activists and others concerned with these animals. Thai traditionalists feel the crush is the only way to train these animals. A 91 year old shaman and spiritual leader says the crush is the only effective method. He says, "If elephant doesn't go through this [the painful crush training], elephant can't be trained" (Hile, 2002, pg. 2). It is thought shamans such as he use black magic to help the elephant break its ties to its mother and he is widely honored where he visits. Once broken, the elephant can assist as a beast of burden and mode of transportation. It is cultural mores and traditions such as this which engenders these practices. And many of these crushed elephants are the same ones who end up working the streets of the big Thai cities—Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Pak Kret, Hat Yai, Chaing Mai and others.

I would also like to be clear that when elephants were used in logging camps in Thailand, it is generally thought their fate was considerably worse. In 1989, Logging was banned and some Thai elephants began working at tourist parks carrying tourists on forest treks or performing tricks for them. And of course there are many people and some organizations within Thailand working to save their remaining elephants. One such place is Sangduen Chailert's Elephant Nature Park just north of Chaing Mai where Chailert and a staff of mahouts care for elephants who have been retired from service or are too sick to work. Some street elephants get hit by cars, buses, and other obstacles while working in the streets. Many of them display scars on their head or holes in their ears, sure signs of the use of the ankus, or bullhook, to control and guide them. Due to walking long distances from the suburbs to reach the cities, the elephants often get sick from the heat and breathing the fumes of the traffic and their joints and feet often get ravaged from the pavement. The mahouts will sell overpriced bananas and fruits to tourists so they can feed the elephants who have been trained to waggle or to move about in an amusing manner. Some of the poorer mahouts have taken to simply using their street elephants to simply help them beg. Due to the acumen of some elements of the Thai government, this has been outlawed in the cities but it wasn't until pressure from the public and Thai organizations that the ban was more heavily enforced. As it remains today, the street elephants and their handlers make their way into the cities at night and often continue begging and otherwise make money for their masters. In cities such as Bangkok, as one can imagine, the authorities simply have more on their minds than street elephants. Quite unfortunate.

Again only around six thousand elephants remain in Thailand and it is thought a century ago there were upwards of 100,000. There are ways in which you can help the Thai street elephants who are undoubtedly suffering on the streets in an unnatural environment this very moment. One can donate to Thai conservation programs such as the Elephant Nature Park, which lets people foster an elephant. ENF is perhaps one of the best and most hopeful rays of hope for Thai Asian elephants. Ways to help are plentiful: you can tell your friends about the plight of the Thai street elephant and write blogs or op-ed pieces for your local newspapers. Sometimes simply purchasing an item such as a t-shirt and wearing it can help spread awareness. The Elephant Nature Foundation has a section on its website (elephantnaturefoundation.org) on how to host a fundraising dinner party for truly motivated activists. Encourage visitors to Asia not to visit elephant camps that give rides to visitors or make their elephants do tricks, as this is a form of abuse (Thailand does have plenty of these types of elephant parks, one should know). For Thai bound travelers, many elephant parks allow volunteers or even offer wonderful "voluntourism" opportunities which are often hard working cheap ways to travel abroad and see wildlife and elephants. You could also become a foster parent to an elephant for about $60 USD. At ENF's website, potential foster parents can read through biographies of elephants and choose one to foster. Many, if not all, of their elephants were rescued from logging camps, trekking companies, street situations, or nursed back to health after horrible injuries; therefore, there truly is no wrong choice regarding which elephant to sponsor. And at the very least, you could sign this current petition urging the end of the use of street elephants in Thailand at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/remove-elephants-from-the-streets-of-thai-cities.html.