Lauren and Vaughan McShane are a couple from South Africa.
Coming to Thailand like many others, my husband and I enjoyed the idea of a romantic trip through the jungle on elephant back.
I was only reassured until I read documents about the Thai custom of Phajaan – a traditional method of taming elephants.
Young elephants are separated from their mothers, beaten and starved.
I should have seen the bullhook, a stick with a curved metal tip like a cow’s horn, in the hand of the elephant guide carrying us.
Learning more, I realized that tourist elephants not only have pitiful childhoods with countless tortures, they also suffer damage to their spine and leg joints when carrying heavy weights on their backs for long periods of time.
Even though I had the opportunity to get close to the natural world and the elephant during the trip, I reflected that I was just one of thousands of ignorant tourists – people who paid a little for entertainment and took it away
PETA’s video about the process of taming elephants using the Phajaan method:
The cruel truth behind elephant rides through the forest
See more: The cruelty behind the sumptuous foie gras dish
Pham Huyen