Action, with a very positive result!
The Elephant Nature Park and Bring the Elephant Home have been campaigning for months to get the elephants out of Chiang Mai: everything from organizing petitions, spreading posters in the entertainment district, handing out flyers, to endless phone calls to the officials responsible. After a mahout had attacked a complaining tourist with his hook, the unacceptable situation was given a lot of media attention. An important moment to capitalize on. Late December, we had gathered about 80 protesters at the city hall to present over 100,000 signatures to the governor of Chiang Mai. And it worked! Mid January the council announced: No more street elephants in the city! The next day all mahouts were given a serious warning and were sent home, where they will get an income from the Thai government. At the moment Chiang Mai is elephant free!
Click ‘more’ for pictures of the protest and for the article written about it on mychiangmai.com.
Article My Chiang Mai
No more elephant beggars in Chiang Mai!
January 12th, 2011
That was the claim of a Chiang Mai councilor yesterday, who says that over 20 elephants and their mahouts (handlers) have been forced out of the city by the police. Speaking exclusively to MyChiangMai on condition of using a pseudonym, Khun ‘Sarm’ said that on December 28th most of the mahouts were rounded up and taken to Mae Ping police station. During a 7 hour meeting, they were told they were breaking the law as well as harming the elephants and causing road safety hazards, and given 2 days to leave or be arrested, fined heavily and possibly jailed. Almost all the mahouts complied and organized trucks to move their animals, most returning to their home province of Surin where the Governor has a program to pay them to stay.
Twenty-four hours later, only 2 elephants were still being paraded around tourist areas, mahouts begging for money to feed them. (Some mahouts have been ‘earning’ up to 8,000b per night and using mobile phones between them to avoid police). Khun ‘Sarm’ said that after a police ‘reminder’, the last 2 also left hastily for Surin, where they claim the Governor’s grant is not enough for them and their animals to live on.
Chiang Mai’s clean up comes some months after a similar, successful operation in Bangkok, and when MyChiangMai questioned business operators in the Night Bazaar and Thapae Gate areas, all agreed that no elephant begging teams had been since since New Year’s Eve.
Editor’s Note: The clean-up comes only weeks after a mahout appeared in court accused of attacking a young Australian couple with his metal hook after they complained of his treatment of an elephant. On the same day, Save Elephant Foundation director Sangduen ‘Lek’ Chailert and supporters presented a petition of over 100,000 signatures to the provincial Governor, protesting elephant begging.
