Dok Ngeon
by Antoinette van de Water, 2006
Dok Ngeon (Silver Flower)
- Age: 7 years
- Born in: Surin
- Bought free: December 14, 2005
- Saved from: Training and begging in Pataya
- Characteristics: Many scars on her forehead, lots of wrinkles, small, energetic, eats very fast.
Dok Ngeon came running to me at the elephant festival in Surin. She was screaming, looked very stressed, felt cold and was shaking. The mahout, who didn’t seem to care about her at all, told me that she was from Surin and had begged in Pattaya. Now she was back in training again to learn new tricks like playing a mouth harmonica. It is clear to see how animal unfriendly this training is, there were a lot of scars and fresh wounds which showed this. Then and there I knew: we needed to help Silver Flower! Last week we made another visit to Dok Ngeon at her village. In the full heat of the sun she was standing with her feet chained together.When we asked the mahout why he does this to her, he says to avoid her eating the whole field at once.
Fortunately we have been able to buy her free. The chains around Dok Ngeon’s frontlegs were removed for the last time. With a truck she was brought to a quiet place where she is being taken care of. After washing her, Dok Ngeon’s wounds really showed, her whole forehead was infected. Now finally her wounds are being treated with care every day. Despite all her misery, she’s still a sweet little elephant. Very kind and interested and fund of all the attention she gets from us. And her healthy appetite makes that she’s regaining strength by the day: already plenty of bags filled with bananas and melons have found their way! In Sri Nuan we hope she has found a caring auntie.
Meanwhile Dok Ngeon together with Sri Nuan has arrived at the Elephant Nature Park (pictures beneath). Here she can spent the rest of her life as a free elephant. She has joined the same group of elephants as Sri Nuan did, who by now has become a friend of her.
