Can a street life be better than an uncaring camp? (a long story with a happy ending)
Posted by John Roberts at Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:40:00 GMT and is filed under Golden Triangle Elephants,Thailand Elephants 
If any one ever asks us to sum up what we do in one sentence (& when did I ever give a simple answer to a simple question?) we say we rescue elephants from the streets - it may indeed be included in our mission statement.
Finding eles like Boon Rod working the night-time streets of Bangkok, sleeping the sleep of the just beneath screaming traffic underpasses, it is difficult not to be inspired by such a statement - elephant family's Dugal Muller tells me that that charity was founded, at least partially, by a similar photo of an elephant sleeping on the hot tarmac of a Bangkok car park.
So, we know the streets of Bangkok are no place for an ele but there are others who walk from town to town, camping in forests, temples, waste land, what about them? The problem is the same, no money and food at home, not wanting to stay in the big cities and tourist/industrial areas they do lead a 'closer to nature' life out in the provinces - I would say there may be a majority of street walking elephants, particularly adults, who live like this.
Illegal and camping in the open, like any transient worker a life that is not without risk from local chancers and con men. Not ideal certainly, but can we rail against it in the same way we do the Bangkok babies?
Well, let me tell you a story, two years ago when the foundation was new and Nong Pleum, Lung Lord and the others were our first proof of intent but still strangers in camp we heard of a street walker on our doorstep - we loaded all the mahouts into the pick-up and drove to Chiang Saen market...
The eagle eyed amongst you will spot our very own K. Sompong mahouting a fat and happy looking juvenile called Pang Jenny - in those days the Surin crowd didn't know us very well, they knew we worked closely with the TECC and our mission statement still could well be summed up in one sentence "Elephants on the Streets are a bad thing" rather than the rather more realistic "Well, it's complicated...." we start with now.
We were young and had no sense, so Lung Lord and Pa Nang came with us to visit their son-in-law, speaking in fast Suay language, without ever letting on that they knew the man riding the elephant, let alone that he was married to the daughter and was the father of their beloved grand-daughter Nong Pleum (named for the elephant we had recently rescued).
They were, justifiably, scared that we'd report the ele and have all arrested - on such situations, pantomimes even, relationships are made or broken, we had no money for a rescue but we invited elephant and mahout to rest with us a few days (still frightened of arrest they declined), fed her some sugarcane, wished them luck and didn't report them.
Fast forward two years, Sompong and his family live with us, along with Lord he's a great asset to the camp and an intelligent mahout with a sense of humour, trust is established and mutual now; high season's approaching and there's an air of panic, everyone wants to ride eles, we must get more, K. Sompong hears of his old ele, Jenny, having a hard time in a trekking camp - the owner is using low tourist numbers as an excuse not to arrange food for her or wages for her mahout, so desperate to leave were they that before we'd planned it properly, or even really thought about it, they had resigned their post and gone onto the streets of Hua Hin - at least there's food out there.
We got a truck down there as fast as we could and got them up here, the elephant that had been a healthy, happy street walker with a definite ele presence three years ago is a skinny shadow, quiet and unconfident (though she did perk up after a good sleep and some sugar cane - see below), of course losing Sompong as a mahout can't help but it does seem to me that she was better off walking the provincial village streets in up-country Thailand than she was legally scraping a living in an uncaring camp - life is never black and white.
PS. Another twist to the story which hopefully shows how far the world has moved, at least in this area:
Three years ago she was walking the streets unmolested, giving rides to policemen's kids and breaking the law on a whim, performing shows for check-point guards, camping outside town hall - that sort of thing.
This time we did a bad thing to do a good thing - being a long weekend and having her walking the streets of Hua Hin we sent the truck down with, shall we say, substandard paperwork - knowing our local livestock vet would sign for us when he returned from his holiday and figuring it an emergency we gambled on the lax law enforcement of three years ago.
Oooops! The good news (aside from the fact we are all friends with the vet - who didn't enjoy having his holiday disturbed by a policeman determined to arrest an elephant but not quite knowing how - again now) is that the system, at least around here in an election year, seems to be working (though I need patches on the knees of my trousers from all the apologising).
Finding eles like Boon Rod working the night-time streets of Bangkok, sleeping the sleep of the just beneath screaming traffic underpasses, it is difficult not to be inspired by such a statement - elephant family's Dugal Muller tells me that that charity was founded, at least partially, by a similar photo of an elephant sleeping on the hot tarmac of a Bangkok car park.
So, we know the streets of Bangkok are no place for an ele but there are others who walk from town to town, camping in forests, temples, waste land, what about them? The problem is the same, no money and food at home, not wanting to stay in the big cities and tourist/industrial areas they do lead a 'closer to nature' life out in the provinces - I would say there may be a majority of street walking elephants, particularly adults, who live like this.
Illegal and camping in the open, like any transient worker a life that is not without risk from local chancers and con men. Not ideal certainly, but can we rail against it in the same way we do the Bangkok babies?
Well, let me tell you a story, two years ago when the foundation was new and Nong Pleum, Lung Lord and the others were our first proof of intent but still strangers in camp we heard of a street walker on our doorstep - we loaded all the mahouts into the pick-up and drove to Chiang Saen market...
The eagle eyed amongst you will spot our very own K. Sompong mahouting a fat and happy looking juvenile called Pang Jenny - in those days the Surin crowd didn't know us very well, they knew we worked closely with the TECC and our mission statement still could well be summed up in one sentence "Elephants on the Streets are a bad thing" rather than the rather more realistic "Well, it's complicated...." we start with now.
We were young and had no sense, so Lung Lord and Pa Nang came with us to visit their son-in-law, speaking in fast Suay language, without ever letting on that they knew the man riding the elephant, let alone that he was married to the daughter and was the father of their beloved grand-daughter Nong Pleum (named for the elephant we had recently rescued).
They were, justifiably, scared that we'd report the ele and have all arrested - on such situations, pantomimes even, relationships are made or broken, we had no money for a rescue but we invited elephant and mahout to rest with us a few days (still frightened of arrest they declined), fed her some sugarcane, wished them luck and didn't report them.
Fast forward two years, Sompong and his family live with us, along with Lord he's a great asset to the camp and an intelligent mahout with a sense of humour, trust is established and mutual now; high season's approaching and there's an air of panic, everyone wants to ride eles, we must get more, K. Sompong hears of his old ele, Jenny, having a hard time in a trekking camp - the owner is using low tourist numbers as an excuse not to arrange food for her or wages for her mahout, so desperate to leave were they that before we'd planned it properly, or even really thought about it, they had resigned their post and gone onto the streets of Hua Hin - at least there's food out there.
We got a truck down there as fast as we could and got them up here, the elephant that had been a healthy, happy street walker with a definite ele presence three years ago is a skinny shadow, quiet and unconfident (though she did perk up after a good sleep and some sugar cane - see below), of course losing Sompong as a mahout can't help but it does seem to me that she was better off walking the provincial village streets in up-country Thailand than she was legally scraping a living in an uncaring camp - life is never black and white.
PS. Another twist to the story which hopefully shows how far the world has moved, at least in this area:
Three years ago she was walking the streets unmolested, giving rides to policemen's kids and breaking the law on a whim, performing shows for check-point guards, camping outside town hall - that sort of thing.
This time we did a bad thing to do a good thing - being a long weekend and having her walking the streets of Hua Hin we sent the truck down with, shall we say, substandard paperwork - knowing our local livestock vet would sign for us when he returned from his holiday and figuring it an emergency we gambled on the lax law enforcement of three years ago.
Oooops! The good news (aside from the fact we are all friends with the vet - who didn't enjoy having his holiday disturbed by a policeman determined to arrest an elephant but not quite knowing how - again now) is that the system, at least around here in an election year, seems to be working (though I need patches on the knees of my trousers from all the apologising).
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