A baby elephant being trained to kneel at the Ban Ta Klang elephant village in the northeastern Thai province of Surin. — Photos: AFP
Separated from their mothers, jabbed with metal hooks, and sometimes deprived of food – many Thai elephants are tamed by force before being sold to lucrative tourism sites increasingly advertised as “sanctuaries” to cruelty-conscious travellers.
Balanced precariously on hind legs, two-year-old Ploy holds a ball in her trunk and flings it towards a hoop, one of many tricks she is learning in Ban Ta Klang, a traditional training village in the east.
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Gallery: Elephants in Thailand ‘broken’ for lucrative animal tourism
A baby elephant being trained to kneel at the Ban Ta Klang elephant village in the northeastern Thai province of Surin. — Photos: AFP
A female elephant bathing with her mahout at the ChangChill elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai. Bathing with elephants is a popular tourism activity but it can be stressful for the animal, especially if they are surrounded by excited tourists.
Tourists posing with elephants in Surin. Thailand has nearly 4,000 ‘domesticated’ elephants.
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