The begging elephants are getting in the street-scene of Bangkok (and other towns) again more and more common unfortunately. This abuse is against the Thai law but this law has not been enforced in a proper way. One of the reasons is that, when the authorities are coming into action the mahouts are getting besurk, going very far in that. Mahout: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahout
The poor Elephants are suffering day-in-day-out under abnormal circumstances, sometimes they are not fed well resulting in food-poisening, stress of noises and all kinds of light, dust and exhaust-gases from the (almost always present heavy) traffic.
Roaming half on roads and half on pavements must be a hell; pavements mostly are very narrow, overcrowded and in a very bad condition: narrow passes, high steps which are even for pedestrians not easy to use, bad leveled, motorbikes driving on the pavement, not, bad or partly covered manholes, you name it and you find it and the elephant feet are definit NOT made to stroll around city-roads! : http://www.flickr.com/photos/siscaro/2355768251
The creatures are many hours roaming around (I estimate 6-8 hours) only with a drink out-of a local fountain or something like that. No bath can be taken even hosing with water is unavailable.
After a hell of a working-day they are, in the middle of the night, brought to their hide-out, an abandoned plot somewhere in or near the city.
Accidents (lorries, cars, glass etc.) are not rare and sometimes the Elephant is getting out of its mind (can caused by a lot of reasons) and the peaceful and accepting creature turns into a not to stop fury, starting to make a rampage. For that reason “difficult” elephants will be drugged. Sometimes, when a specialized team with a vet is available, it can be calmed down by an injection but I have seen also a press-photo of an Elephant gunned down in the middle of Bangkok by the police: no vet available and the poor animal got a big thread for its surroundings. An example of the police armed with a gun during an arrest of a mahout can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toni_uni/2347488947/in/set-72157603251277034
Wounded and confiscated elephants are treated by action groups and rescue centers: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toni_uni/2418143749/in/set-72157604567837592
About the risks of accidents humans can suffer caused by these “wild” animals underneath an extract of a list from the animal-organization PETA. This extract is from a list with world-wide accidents and is, unfortunately, not being kept up-to-date. However it proves, besides of the unacceptable abuse, the damages these suffering creatures can cause! These are ONLY the stats from BANGKOK, in the rest of Thailand were much more fatalities!
July 13, 2000/Bangkok, Thailand: An elephant used for giving rides to tourists gored a man to death after the man teased him by pretending to offer food.
November 21, 2000/Bangkok, Thailand: Three politicians were thrown eight feet when an elephant they were riding panicked upon seeing traffic and bolted through the streets. One man suffered a broken arm, another sustained head, arm, and leg injuries, and the third man was badly bruised.
July 13, 2000/Bangkok, Thailand: An elephant used for giving rides to tourists gored a man to death after the man teased him by pretending to offer food.
April 24, 2000/Bangkok, Thailand: An elephant used in a tourist park went berserk during a show and attacked three visitors, killing one and seriously injuring the other two.
February 14, 2000/Bangkok, Thailand: A bull elephant tossed his handler off his back and went berserk in the heart of Bangkok, stampeding through a major shopping district before being tranquilized. The elephant was hungry and exhausted from walking along the busy streets begging for money for his handler, a common practice in Thailand.
July 11, 1999/Bangkok, Thailand: An elephant used for carrying tourists at a popular resort gouged his 13-year-old keeper to death. The boy was taking the 25-year-old elephant, Boonlieng, for his usual bath when the animal suddenly became nervous and killed him.
November 3, 1997/Bangkok, Thailand: An elephant killed eight people and injured his trainer.
January 1997/Bangkok, Thailand: An elephant who had been chained to a tree for 20 years was gunned down after going berserk and breaking free.
March 16, 1995/Bangkok, Thailand: An elephant in a circus trampled two men to death before being shot and killed by police. The elephant was killed when chloroform bullets failed to stop him from charging the crowd.
April 1991/Bangkok, Thailand: An elephant was frightened by a camera flash and trampled a person to death.
“There’s something special about elephants. It’s not just their immense size, incredible trunk, great ears and magnificent tusks … elephants are gentle, intelligent, loving and loyal. They deserve our special care. Sadly elephants face many threats … both in the wild and in captivity.”
text: Born Free Org. : http://www.bornfree.org.uk/about-us/
Mistifarang: “Once I had I comment of a Flickr member (which he deleted afterwards unfortunately). He mentioned the problems the mahouts are facing because they are getting more and more without work and they are for these reasons starting begging with “ their” mastodons.
Yes, the genuine mahouts have problems BUT the whole matter is that around 75% of the elephants in Thailand are owed by rich families. I have heard shortly the phrase: “the elephant lord”.
The “mahouts” are lured into the “business” by unscrupulous people selling their elephants for prices in between Baht 500.000 and 1.000.000 (depends on the age). The mahouts, even not capable to calculate their future “business” are buying such an elephant but don’t have enough money and pay (also with the help of their family) around ¼ of the price. The rest they accept as a loan against 5% interest PER MONTH. A down-payment to get finally rid of the loan is out of discussion because the interest can just be paid for (or not).
Monthly interests of this kind are true and “reel” in Thailand as I experienced in my very near environment: interests of 7-15% A MONTH are normal and the loans has been supplied illegally by loan sharks, of course not paying any tax and hooking the victim forever.
Besides the question if the mahout is a genuine one or went into the “business” later-on it is not acceptable to start animal-misuse for reasons being out of work.
These mahouts are getting enormous problems because the health of these begging creatures is every year worse and as the elephant is owed now by the mahout he has to pay all the costs. What is happening when his elephant dies finally? Yes the mahout has a hugh debt as big as it was at the time of the purchase. One can imagine what happens then!
More photos can be seen in my public Flickr-album;
set “begging elephants”: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toni_uni/sets/72157603251277034/
set “the arrest of a mahout”: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toni_uni/sets/72157604859565642/
“We often call the Elephant the gentle giant, but we should be ever mindful that Elephants are wild animals, and can exhibit behavior you should be aware of when around them”: http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/what-i-did-not-know-about-elephants.html
The elephants shouldn’t be brought onto the street like that. At the very least, they should have only let the elephants performing at the zoo or vast green areas only.
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