novel experience cloaking the real tragedy behind it

! please hover over the images to see what the original poster written on the topic or just go straight to his post !

topic of the day 008

gaining profit by taking advantage

of human fascination

of these afflicted giants

from imgur

What?

A behind the curtain look of the tourism industry that is particular to Thailand and how the elephants are submitted to in order to serve and entertain us.

Warning! Graphic animal cruelty: http://i.imgur.com/adCDyYu.mp4
Who?

The locals simply taking advantage of the country's developing mentality and use these animals cruelly just because they attract a lot of money from oblivious tourists, simply seeing it on the surface without delving into the tragic history underneath.
I would keep my opinions short because his post is clear and detailed (please hover over the images for his input on the topic or just go to the post).

How?

Hypocrisy at its finest as the temples and gift shops all across the country are full with the imagery of these majestic animals while its flawed laws simply allowing the owners of these "commercial animals" to 'use' them as they see fit and if it's beneficial to the economy, it doesn't matter the method.

Why?

I am now conflicted to share the rest of my pictures from my trip there since I took part in this abuse without knowing what they really went through but I hope this post would at least give a deserving spotlight on the matter and letting the visitors to my blog know before it's too late to do anything about it.

Then?

As mentioned by fellow imgurian, sauceboss4life, there are a number of individuals from inside and outside of Thailand that wanted to make a change for the better and help these animals by providing an elephant sanctuary for them suffered in the tourism as well as the logging industry.

So?
If you still want to spend time with these majestic gentle giants but without being a detriment to their conditions, you can visit the above sanctuary and give them money that would be used to keep it open, kept them well fed and rescuing those still to be rescued. Or if you can't make it there, please donate to support their cause by visiting the sites below:

And that's Lek, surrounded by her elephants. They know she's their savior.

Lesson Learned:

"It's all fun and games until you learn how they arrived there in the first place."

~ outdated laws around Thai's elephants ~ Lek Chailert ~ Elephant Nature Park ~ how to donate ~