Visiting an Elephant Sanctuary: The Anticipation vs. the Sobering Reality
I wonder if I’ve been an animal in a past life. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had been — I feel deeply for animals, especially ones that have been domesticated for our benefit and pleasure. I went to visit an elephant sanctuary yesterday near the outskirts of Chiang Mai, Thailand — this had been something to which I’d been looking forward for a while.
Although I enjoyed spending time with the elephants, I found myself feeling bad for them, despite the fact that they were now living in a sanctuary after having spent their lives working for elephant riding camps, circuses or logging companies. After feeding the elephants, I just wanted to let them be rather than disturb their peace.
Prior to feeding the elephants, our tour guide explained to us that the elephants can be fed one of two ways:
1) Place a stalk of sugarcane or banana on the elephant’s trunk
2) Stand beside the elephant, shout “BON BON”, which will then prompt the elephant to open its mouth, thereby enabling us to place the sugarcane/banana directly in its mouth
Naturally, all of us (myself included) wanted to try feeding the elephants both ways. However, what I noticed was the following:
