FollowTheLeBarons: Elephant Nature Park

I meant what I said and I said what I meant, an elephant's faithful one hundred percent!

Sunday (7/23) was our much anticipated overnight at The Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai. I had planned this visit since I knew we were traveling to Thailand, and it was important to me that we chose an ethical and responsible company. At first I even wondered if keeping the elephants at parks such as ENP was the right thing, but since they've already been in the tourism industry or disabled in some way, there really wouldn't be any chance for survival in the wild.

ENP rescues, rehabilitates, and protects injured and abused elephants from the tourism and logging industries. Young/baby elephants are often captured and taken from their mothers, where humans then "break their spirits" through physical and psychological abuse. They are chained/caged up, tortured with bull-hooks or clubs and forced into submission. I was already aware of the abuse, but it was even more eye opening and heartbreaking to hear stories and see videos/pictures about the way humans treat elephants, and only then to have that magnificent creature stand before me.

NO to riding elephants! NO to elephants in the circus! NO to logging!

During our two days at the park we met some cool folks; a few Canadians, a couple from Oregon, and two women from the UK (one now lives in Singapore). We made food for the elephants, fed them several times a day, and bathed them in the river. We were also able to enjoy some quiet time with the elephants in the morning before all of the day trip groups came in. It was so neat to learn about their different personalities, their mannerisms, and what other elephants each one likes to hang out with.

We stayed in our own (damp) wooden cabin, slept under a mosquito net, and were waken up by trumpeting elephants at 5am. But it was all worth it.

View from our room. They keep the elephants locked at night for safety reasons.

A lot of the older elephants become foster moms to the babies

We also got to visit some of the 400+ rescued dogs from puppy mills and the streets. They are all fenced in by different packs but seemed to have it pretty good - they're well fed with a lot of outdoor running space. All of the dogs were up for adoption though and it was hard not to walk away with out one!

Dogs and elephants actually hate one another. Some of the dogs get to roam free on the property and they love teasing the elephants.