Thai Elephant Care Center — Attraction in Chiang Mai Province

This is a retirement home for elderly domesticated elephants. The claim is that they are now well cared for until their end, after a long working life. Daily baths, veterinarian care, chopped grasses for the individuals whose teeth are too damaged for them to grind their feed, herbal and fruity treats to help with digestion... Nights are spent free in a protected area of the surrounding forest. It sounds idyllic and my friend and I had a good time taking part in the various caring activities. The centre itself obviously needs to survive too. It claims also to have an educational purpose and appears well run. Our day long 'tour' (3000 bahts per person) included a very delicious lunch, choice of drinks also included. It is obviously difficult to judge the good will of the creators of these places in a few short hours.The 'sanctuary' also provides employment for the local Hill people. I did feel uncomfortable when the 'mahout' made the elephant have a bath with us and squirt us with water. We're told they have to bath daily anyway to keep their skin healthy. And these are domesticated creatures, more used to humans than each other. On the face of it, they do appear well cared for and do not do tricks or get ridden on. Worth the experience and your making your own mind up about some of these places, including this one. Would recommend it even if only for the opportunity to ask...

Based on prior information and evaluations we did a 1/2-day-Tour at Thai Elephant Care Center. Scepticism was present ahead, but the visit confirmed: captivity of such beautiful animals should not be the basis of a business model. Although the Thai elephant care center want to create the impression of “only taking care” of elderly elephants, it must be clear: in order for elephants to be docile enough to interact with tourist, the vast majority are separated early from their mothers and trained using fear-based methods that involve metal instruments like the bullhooks. We saw with our own eyes a guard riding on an elephant using a bullhook beating the elephant. Elephants are separated from each other and are fenced in small enclosures most of the time instead of having big landscape to roam free. I should ha yeah invested a thought earlier on this topic, then I would not have visited any elephant camp (whatever the purpose of the camp is with/without riding or whatever impression any camp wants to awake). Beautiful animals like animals are most enjoyable in the wild. Everyone should invest a thought on the topic ahead of booking such alike tour. Intention of the post is not to shame anyone but to sensitize with Information that might help to identify potentially abusive situations for...

They do seem to care for the elderly elephants well and the overall feel was positive with some lovely activities however I did see some things that concerned me. Some of the elephants are chained up (albeit very loosely) in their stalls and although they are allowed out for long periods of time they are not always allowed to be "natural" and keep close to their mahout following their commands. I understand that these elephants are domestic and used to work or perform (we were told they would struggle to survive alone in the forest) but I think they could have been given more freedom. On the plus side they are in a much better place than before, the mahouts seem to really love being with the elephants and they are given plenty of food and opportunity to drink and are not ridden by the public or abused. It is good that they provide care for elderly retired elephants who would otherwise...