Photo Credit: AP Photo/David Longstreath

July 12, 2010–According to The Washington Post, “Bangkok authorities said Monday anyone caught handing bunches of bananas or sugar cane to the hulking beasts – proffered by their handlers to make money – faces a $320 (10,000 baht) fine.”

The AP article also reported:

Thailand has about 2,400 domestic elephants. There is little demand these days for the animals’ traditional skills in logging and other labor, so owners sometimes loan them out for begging from tourists and locals in major cities.

“The ordinance is issued to prevent untidiness or danger toward properties and lives of Bangkok residents,” said Manit Techa-apichoke, deputy director of the City Law Enforcement Department, adding there had been cases of elephants hurting people and falling into drains.

Friends of the Asian Elephant, a Thai non-government group which cares for injured or mistreated elephants, called the fines a good start.

“I’ve been asking for them to do this for 15 years,” said its founder, Soraida Salwala, adding that she hoped other Thai cities would follow suit. “It’s not the total solution, but it’s a help.”

Previously, mahouts – as elephant handlers are known – and their accomplices were fined for bringing an elephant into Bangkok, but those feeding the animal escaped punishment. Typically a tourist would pay 20 baht ($0.62) for the privilege of handing a bunch of fruit or vegetables into the elephant’s trunk.

Begging street elephants are a huge problem in Thailand and other cities throughout Southeast Asia and India.  Not only do they cause a distraction and get caught in traffic accidents with humans, but city-life is horrendous for these emotional, intelligent, sensitive beings who communicate through seismic vibrations that they feel through their feet, in addition to trumpeting with their vocal cords.

Let us not forget that anyone who feeds an Asian Elephant is actually contributing to the problem of wild-capturing an endangered species (usually while they are babies, because baby elephants earn more on the street), breaking their spirits in order to “domesticate” them, and then selling them into a life of hardship, trauma, abuse and neglect, where they will be passed or sold from owner to owner for the rest of their lives.

Fining the people who feed elephants is a baby step in the right direction to protect Asian Elephants in the long-run. Once there is less demand for feeding street elephants, the owners will have to make a different choices–perhaps looking to sell their elephants to sanctuaries or even asking the Thai government to expand the The Pang-La Nursery Home for Aged Elephant, which it announced in 21 November 2009 but has so far not enforced.

You can read the rest of the Washington Post article here. As we learn more, I will share it here.  Cheers!

-Windy Borman

Director & Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

Corinne Morton taught her 6th Grade Science classes in Ithaca, NY (USA) about the plight of elephants in the wild and captivity. Inspired by The Eyes of Thailand trailer, three students wrote poems about Thai elephants.  Below is the second poem:

A Thailand Elephant

by Jaina Swanhart age 11, Boynton Middle School

This elephant here
Was taken from his mother
Never got to roam free
And feel secure as elephants do with one another

Dreaming, hoping to find a way home
Away from his mom, it is so severe
Whips, chains and illegal logging
From a small soulful eye drops a swift tear

Shredded leg, what now?
Stepping on explosive mines
Standing on three feeling despair
It is only a matter of time

In his captivity a lady looks
Kids around him, he’s being teased
Runs and runs to fine Mahout
She thinks, can I buy him please?

She’s rescues him, finally free
Knowing where to take him
He follows her lead
To the elephant hospital, to a new limb

Eating with other elephants
Here he finds his mother
Walking, talking, catching up
A feeling like no other

There’s a devoted vet
He loves and cherishes her
Giving him a new hope in life
He wishes others fate were similar

Please tune in next week for the third poem…

-Windy Borman

Producer, Director and Writer, The Eyes of Thailand

Corinne Morton taught her 6th Grade Science classes in Ithaca, NY (USA) about the plight of elephants in the wild and captivity. Ms. Morton writes:

I did a big unit on elles in science for all 90 of my students and still weave in elles whenever I can, inducing my poetry reading class unit. That is where they wrote the elle poems… They have a lot of knowledge about elles now and of the many sanctuaries. I talk about why elles shouldn’t be in zoos and circuses, tourism, illegal forestry logging, street entertainment, etc., it was an extensive unit,  powerful, wonderful.   The kids are amazing and very passionate about the plight of elephants on this earth!  The children will change the world!!

Inspired by The Eyes of Thailand trailer, three students wrote poems about Thai elephants.  Below is the first poem:

It Will Come Soon, Hope

by Morgan Bell age 11 Ithaca, NY Boynton Middle School

Called Suste by her Mahout Master
Some stop in moment to take charity
She’s getting yelled at and urged on faster
Kindness in her world is a rarity

One single tear rolls down her wrinkled face
Covered with colors from head to toe
She dances for the waiting eye with grace
Oh No! A wrong step waiting for her foe

Scars from her mistake start to bother
She closes her eyes as he does the job
She wonders if there’s a soul who loves her
Left there about to break into a sob

She told herself not to look down and mope
But to look up, smile, it will soon come…hope!

Please tune in next week for the second poem…

-Windy Borman

Producer, Director and Writer, The Eyes of Thailand