Thailand’s elephants are suffering the side effects of the pandemic and its impact on the tourism sector. For decades, Thailand’s elephants have served as entertainment for visitors from different parts of the world. Now, unable to keep up with the costs of feeding the elephants, local companies dedicated to their tourist exploitation are thinking of selling them.
Especially the zoos, which live off the tickets and elephant rides that tourists pay for at almost any price. In the wake of the global health crisis caused by Covid-19, the picture is very different: although the animals are still in their cells, the corridors of the institution are empty.
In October of 2021, Australian photojournalist Adam Oswell drew attention to the way elephants are treated in Thailand when he won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) award for Photojournalism with “Elephant in the Room”, a photo he took at Khao Kheow. Oswell used his photo to draw attention to the crowd watching, rather than the elephant itself, bringing into question this form of tourist entertainment. People of various ages, all with Asian features, are pictured watching the elephant.
.@NHM_WPY Wildlife Photographer Of The Year @AdamOswell draws attention to zoo visitors watching a young #Elephant perform underwater.
— PROTECT ALL WILDLIFE (@Protect_Wldlife) October 13, 2021
Although the performance was promoted as educational and as exercise for the Elephants, Adam was disturbed by this scene. pic.twitter.com/vzsGKBswb8
Shows like this one are often promoted as educational and advertised as good exercise for the animals, but rights organizations are concerned for the welfare of the elephants involved. The training for this type of show usually starts with the removal of a calf from its mother and uses fear and pain-based punishment.
According to CNN, some Thai people see a double standard in how Khao Kheow, and Thailand in general, have become lightning rods for animal-related criticism from the West. They wonder why, for instance, the elephant swimming exhibitions held at zoos in Germany and Switzerland have drawn minimal criticism despite appearing to share similarities with the one at Khao Kheow.
The estimated value per head is $96,000. The local zoo of Kanchanaburi posted from its official Facebook page a distressing announcement: “at this point, to close the wounds of Covid, we have to sell the elephants”. This story is repeated in other conservation centers dedicated to the species.
Around 3,800 elephants live in captivity throughout the country. Between camps, zoos and sanctuaries, the elephants are rented to individual owners who can no longer afford to maintain them. The struggle to feed them, care for them and provide them with an acceptable state of well-being has become much more acute in recent months, due to the notable lack of visitors to Thailand.
On average, an elephant ride can cost between $20 and $150. Without this income, the food and living conditions of the elephants that depend on their keepers falter. Although the Thai government has plans to open the southern region fully in July, there is still much uncertainty. The strategy is ambitious, and tourism to Asia is not looking good towards the end of 2021. Thailand is recording 4,000 Covid-19 infections per day, compromising public infrastructure and the country’s tourist attractiveness.
In Surin, northern Thailand, the “Surin Elephant Round Up Festival” has been organized every November since 1960. The event, which takes place at the open-air Srinarong stadium and is attended by a large number of local and foreign tourists, features some 300 elephants, painted and costumed, who have to perform in various shows and participate in a soccer tournament.
Every summer there is also the “King’s Cup of Elephant Polo” organized by the Anantara hotel chain. This event, promoted as “solidarity” and “charity” is in reality another spectacle in which animals trained with cruel methods have to be exhibited in unnatural activities.
The vast majority of the elephants held in captivity are used in rides and tourist camps where they are forced to exhibit themselves in degrading shows, such as riding tricycles, painting pictures, playing soccer and basketball, dancing and even giving massages to visitors.
Animal welfare organizations around the world have come out against the traditional Thai method of taming elephants, “Pajaan”, which involves the isolation and torture of these animals in order to “break their spirit” and lead them to obey human orders out of fear of possible consequences. According to the NGO Elephant Family, between 50 and 100 baby elephants are captured every year in Burma to feed the Thai tourist industry, with an average of 5 adult elephants being killed for each calf.
