RE: Looking for elephants in Thailand. On a mission with mixed feelings.
Thanks for sharing.. its an interesting conversation, because of course when you see the state of some of the ones that have been rescued, when they come in... they are much better off in the parks.
Like everything there will be good parks/ sanctuaries where the animals are well cared for and their welfare is foremost and others where it's all about the tourist dollar.
I do believe ultimately and overall they do more good than bad and this is improving as they reduce the amount of people riding them, and the way they are being ridden (mahout rather than a platform)
Education (especially the tourists) is the key, we definitely need the sanctuaries to protect and rescue elephants and the sanctuaries are trying to find ways to balance funding (mostly from attracting tourist) with welfare and conservation.
Great write-up thanks for sharing
Thank you for the extensive comment! I am all with you that most of these parks do more good than bad. But in my opinion the toursist dollars should never be their core business. Taking care of the animals should and earning some dollars on the side should be a nice extra. But I can relate because most of the times these Dollars are neccesary for the continuation of the park.
We went to an elephant orphanage in Uda Walawe in Sri Lanka. You could pay an entree ticket, but only to watch from a stand how the little elephants are being fed. And that's more than enough. Most people just want to see them from up close.