Statement Antoinette about media problems
Statement Antoinette van de Water – founder of Bring the Elephant Home
This week a picture that has been taken 4 years ago and has been published in our book ‘The Great Elephant Escape’ about mating of elephants became hot news in Thai media. Monday the 2nd of November the Thai Rath newspaper published this picture on the front page with the text that a Dutch writer is insulting Thailand in the whole word. The text in the article weren’t my words. I didn’t do an interview with Thai Rath and I didn’t write this text in my book. After my protests, Thai Rath did in fact rectify the story. But other media had already picked it up and sent it snowballing into public space. Other organizations stated that the picture is fake, published only to discredit Thailand and to promote the book.
I had a chance to clarify my story on Channel 7, the Nation TV, TAN media network, Thai Rath and today in the Nation Weekend magazine. With this statement about my background and the reasons for my being in Thailand, I want to make the information accessible to everybody.
About the picture of the elephant mating
During my first year in Thailand, I visited many elephant places to learn about Thai elephants. During this learning period I saw the beauty in Thai elephants and immediately fell in love with them. But I witnessed some darker sides too, like elephants begging in Bangkok, and how people handle elephants mating. In my book I only describe what I see.. In the picture you can see what I saw, it tells the whole story. I don’t blame anyone in the book. I didn’t state that this is happening everywhere in Thailand. I only compared this event with the mating of elephants in a natural way that I witnessed before. It doesn’t look gentle s either, but at least the elephants themselves decided if they were ready and the female was flanked by two girlfriends. In the book I call it mating, not rape. It’s up to the people how they would call it and up to the elephant experts to explain what is happening exactly. If I misunderstood, I apologize. I never approached media to publish this picture, and I never published articles only about elephant abuse. We focus on positive change, the beauty of Thai elephants and by doing this we try to show that there’s a different way. In general my book is a positive book that actually promotes Thailand as a tourist destination. But the difficult situation of elephants and mahouts had a huge impact on me. They awoke my passion and determination to do something to create a better future for them, and was also part of the reason why I started Bring the Elephant Home.
If I had wanted this type of media attention to promote the book, I would have approached English-language media and would have done it long time ago. I don’t make any money from the book; the royalties were paid in books which I donated to the Elephant Nature Park. I don’t work for Thai elephants for my own benefit. But I try to find funds from overseas in order to help Thai elephants and to support Thai organizations.
Many tourists and volunteers came to Thailand after they read the book, to support Thai elephants and to share our passion for Thai elephants. I love Thailand, Thai people and its elephants and I feel more home here than in the Netherlands. I only work with Thai people, our partner organizations are Thai, most of our volunteers are Thai, and so are my friends.
Hopefully the discussion about this picture will serve to focus on the fate of the Thai elephant. I feel very upset, sad and afraid about what happened this week. I want to continue our projects to support Thai elephants for a long time..
History of Antoinette van de Water
The idea of Bring the Elephant Home arose when I was doing volunteer work in the Elephant Nature Park in 2002. In this sanctuary for retired elephants, I fell in love with Thai elephants and with the country. When visiting Bangkok, I encountered a baby elephant in much need, begging for food on Khao San Road. The baby had a look of fear in his eyes that I will never forget. It broke my heart, but I wasn’t able to bring this begging baby elephant home to the Elephant Nature Park. This encounter and the experience at The Elephant Nature Park impressed me so much that I came back two years later to volunteer once again. This time I wanted to do much more. With lots of ideas, inspiration and determination to help begging elephants, I returned to the Netherlands to make this dream of mine come true. I registered The Bring the Elephant Home Foundation and started fundraising activities. My passion and love for Thai elephants got so strong that I left my family, friends, job and house in the Netherlands and moved to Thailand.
The more I learned about elephants, the more I became aware that deforestation is the cause of many problems elephants are facing. To help elephants in Thailand, we needed to do something about that. Over the last two years, we planted over 150.000 trees for elephants in four areas were elephants are in need of room and food. For this project, we are also working closely with Thai organizations. Their experience, knowledge and network is much valued and indispensable. It is my strong belief that together we can make a difference for Thai elephants.
To create alternatives for street begging, we started a community development project in Buriram. The villagers plant trees, and for every tree planted, Bring the Elephant Home deposits money in the newly created village bank. The villagers can start income generating projects with a micro-loan from this village bank. This improves the economic situation of the villagers, and the environment as well. Through the village bank, all villagers get the opportunity to build a future.
By planting trees, a natural environment and food for the elephants are created. And the project is a positive example of sustainable and animal friendly tourism. On the elephant island you can see that people and elephants can live in peace together.
The Trees for Elephants project won The World of Difference award of Vodafone and the Terre des Femmes award of Yves Rocher in the Netherlands. The Animal Planet documentary Elephant Return to the Wild won two awards and has been broadcasted worldwide.
Mission of Bring the Elephant Home
One cannot imagine a future without elephants living in Thailand. And yet, elephants are disappearing.
Bring the Elephant Home is actively participating in the protection of the Asian elephant, which is threatened with extinction. Asian elephants are increasingly confronted with a lack of space and food. Therefore, our aims are reforestation, protection of the remaining forests, and solving human-elephant conflicts. New forest planted for the Thai elephants are a solution. The elephants get more space, a greater variety of food, the area is protected against further demolition, and the forests help solve the conflict with local farmers.
In our opinion, all elephants should be living in the wild. If this is not possible, they should be able to live in an environment as natural as possible, where they can live as normal as possible. Therefore, we focus on projects that can make this possible: elephant parks and reserves.
We understand that using elephants to make money is necessary for the survival of elephants. Bring the Elephant Home supports projects that work with elephants in a natural way, without hampering or going against the animal’s natural behavior. Therefore, we plead for and support animal friendly, natural, and sustainable elephant projects. We want to help owners and mahouts find a different way to earn a living with their elephants. Where the elephants have a chance to roam, find their own food, live together with other elephants and breed in a natural way.
Conclusion
Bring the Elephant Home wants to bring about a better future for the Thai elephants with a positive approach. We try to accomplish this by promoting animal friendly ecotourism, by the conservation and creation of a natural environment for the elephants, producing healthy food for the elephants, furthering alternative employment for elephant keepers, and by helping to solve human-elephant conflicts.
We focus on showing the beauty of Thai elephants, we try to create positive change and work together with local people. We promote Thailand as a tourist destination and bring many visitors.
