Notice how this elephant’s legs are shackled to the post? She was trying to move, but couldn’t — the chain was just a few inches long.
We jumped out of our taxi to dissuade prospective customers from supporting this business and told them about protecting these beautiful (and intelligent!) animals from abusive trainers. One of my students (Shreya) gave me fliers to pass out to tourists to educate them about real eco-tourism that doesn’t saddle elephants for rides or train them to do tricks. This is her ProjectMerit!
When the elephant owners got wind of our message, we jumped back in our taxi for a quick get away!
Please spread to word about real eco tourism! Go to Elephants Retirement 9Dee Phuket for an amazing experience (I’ll post about it soon!).