It sure does feel good to be writing this post from my bed at 8:47PM. :) :)
Today was another long travel day as we have started our return trek to central Thailand (Bangkok, specifically) from Chiang Mai, located in the northern part of the country. We are breaking the drive up over two days with a few prominent stopping points.
Today, we visited the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang, about an hour south of Chiang Mai. Boy, elephant tourism generates a lot of discussion and folks have strong opinions on it.
My personal opinion: I think zoos, aquariums, and similar institutions are complicated. Obviously, mistreatment of animals under any circumstance is bad, and plucking animals out of the wild to live a life in captivity is also bad. That said, zoos, aquariums, etc., may also instill in folks--especially young folks--an ethic of care and conservation where they grow up wanting to protect these animals and their habitats. And they may raise a lot of money for habitat conservation and research. I also think that places where animals are forced to perform with negative reinforcements (e.g. hitting or whipping an animal if they don't comply with the desired trick) are not okay. I guess the point is that from my point of view, there's a spectrum of ethical behaviors and treatment of animals, and all zoos/aquariums/refuges/Sea Worlds, etc. exist somewhere along that spectrum. The goal is to move all of these institutions toward the side of doing what's in the best interest of the animal and shutting down the institutions that don't have the resources or desire to do so.
As I learned today, elephant tourism is another complicated issue. We were encouraged today to approach our experience at the Elephant Conservation Center with an open and curious mind. It's easy for Westerners, such as myself, to finger wag and say that elephants shouldn't be made to serve the interests of tourists, but I would argue that the way we (U.S.A.) treat animals involved in large-scale beef, pork, and poultry production is waaaaay worse--yet I continue to eat beef, pork, and poultry.
In some cases--elephants in Thailand being one of them--deforestation and habitat loss may actually preclude animals from being able to survive in the wild, and sanctuaries, like the one we visited today, might give elephants their best shot at a safe and healthy life. Elephants are expensive to feed and care for. Tourism dollars help fund their care. As mentioned previously, institutions can exist on a spectrum from "really crappy practices" to "consistently demonstrating ethical behaviors," and I think the global goal is helping institutions move further down the spectrum toward the good end.
I am personally grateful for the opportunity to visit the Elephant Conservation Center, and from my perspective, the respect demonstrated by the mahouts (individual trainers assigned to individual elephants) toward the elephants was really profound. From Fodor's Travel article:
On top of the $12,000 [for annual care of a single elephant] is $6,000/year for wages, room, and board for each elephant’s mahout. “Mahout”, a Hindi word meaning “elephant keeper,” is commonly used in Thailand. The proper Thai term is “kwan chang,” meaning, “one who drives or walks with the elephant.” Traditionally, each elephant has a mahout who cares for it and the two are often paired for life. The job was esteemed (though not well-paid) and often passed from father to son in Southeast Asia’s Indigenous communities. A mahout spends most of his waking hours with his elephant, ensuring the animal is safe and content.I'm not sure how I feel about the performance/demonstration pieces--elephants were and are used for agricultural purposes in Thailand, and it was genuinely fascinating to watch elephants walk across logs and hoist timber with their trunks as they would when working in an agricultural context (think about how we used horses and mules prior to the development of new machinery). It was clear that this particular Conservation Center uses positive reinforcement to encourage desired behaviors (lots of treats and affection shown to the elephants) rather than punishments. Again, a complicated issue.
I think the big takeaways from me were:
- Elephants are awesome.
- I appreciated getting to observe the relationship between mahout and elephant.
- We Western folks should probably check our own receipts re: animal rights and animal cruelty before criticizing other countries and cultures when we don't have the full cultural context and/or try and paint all institutions with the same broad brush.
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