I rescued an elephant mom in Thailand that was about to be killed for trying to protect her baby boy. Mimi is the mother and Bop is the adorable ‘little’boy who was horribly abused by employees of an animal show.
Shirley Francona for Kennebec 7 (#2)
The situation for elephants in Thailand is not so dissimilar from the plight of many wild animals across our planet today. Orangutans in Borneo, Bengal Tigers in India and elsewhere, pandas in China, gorillas in Rwanda. All endangered animals.
Man and beast compete for the ever-dwindling patches of land that have always sustained wild creatures. Land that humans fight over so they can grow food, cut down trees, dig up diamonds, and so forth.
From afar, however, people like me from countries like America, we have the impression that elephants are revered in Thailand. The country is shaped something like an elephant’s head. Elephants figure prominently in the art and history of the Kingdom. Elephants went to war on behalf of Thai kings.
Imagine my shock and disappointment when I arrived in Bangkok for the first time for the express purpose of trekking through Thai forests on the back of an elephant. The first elephant I saw was immersed in the middle of Bangkok’s infamous bumper-to-bumper traffic.
I was in a Toyota taxi, inching along amidst shiny black Mercedes, sleek BMWs, push carts selling food, and endless lines of motorcycles snaking in and out of traffic. Suddenly, ahead of me, looming above the sea of cars and motorcycles was a giant elephant, plodding slowly on the road like a mastodon among pigmies.
He was the first of many ‘begging’ elephants that I witnessed. They can be found in many Thai cities. Because logging was abolished in the Kingdom in the 1990s, owners of domestic elephants had to find a new line of work for their pachyderms. Begging. To quote Antoinette van de Water in her moving book, “The Great Elephant Escape,” ‘…She begs until all the bars and discos close. Drunks pull on her tail and try to make her drink beer. When (she) hungrily reaches out with her trunk to a restaurant table for leftovers, a customer throws hot coffee in her face….’
The scene I have described, where I saw my first begging elephant in Bangkok, appears in the screenplay, "The Earth Trembled". I do hope that you’ll have a chance to see the film after it’s made. You’ll see what noble, intelligent and sensitive animals elephants truly are.
For more information about Antoinette’s book, contact Silkworm Books at info@silkwormbooks.com
Hugs,
Shirley
For Kennebec7
(3/16/2010)
Santa Fe