Without a doubt, one of the most popular activities in northern Thailand is riding elephants. Outfitters in places like Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Pai offer elephant treks, usually combined with other activities. One-day or multi-day treks involve hiking, rafting (white water or bamboo depending on the season) and visits to local hill tribe villages. But is riding elephants ethical?
IS RIDING ELEPHANTS ETHICAL?
Before you part with your money and sign up for one of these tours, it’s worth doing a bit of research into the ethical implications of riding elephants in Chiang Mai and the surrounding areas.
THE ISSUES
Whichever way you look at it, riding elephants involves affecting the behaviour of elephants. Any working elephant is no longer free to roam and live a normal life. The level of care these elephants receive varies greatly from company to company, but unfortunately, it’s not uncommon to see the following bad practices.
Use of Chairs
The most comfortable way for an elephant to carry a human is on the neck just behind the ears. The additional weight of a chair and multiple people puts strain on the elephant.
Long Hours
Working elephants need to have the time to enjoy their usual activities, like feeding, bathing and interacting with other members of the group. If they’re worked all day long, they don’t have the opportunity to do this.
Chaining and Caging
Any form of chaining is restrictive on an elephant’s movement and can cause abrasions on their skin.
Bull Hooks
Many mahouts use bull hooks to guide their elephants. A selection of companies who describe themselves as ‘responsible’ justify their use because it makes the experience safer for passengers. Many elephants have wounds caused by these hooks and, in extreme cases, mahouts have used them to attack elephants that refused to work.
General Care
Keeping an elephant fed and comfortable is no small task. It’s a huge commitment of both time and money for a mahout to supply up to 300 pounds of food a day and to provide adequate care. Many fail and this leads to malnourishment.
‘Breaking’ the Elephant’s Spirit
Even if the best practices are followed, any elephant used for trekking and rides had to be trained at some stage. The process of domesticating an elephant often involves negative reinforcement and can lead to psychological damage.
ALTERNATIVES TO RIDING ELEPHANTS
If, after you’ve done your research, you’re still keen to do some trekking or have an interactive experience with elephants, there are a few organisations in Chiang Mai that provide the perfect solution.
CHOOSING A TREKKING TOUR
If you’d like to go trekking to see the hill tribe villages and explore the natural landscape surrounding Chiang Mai, you can search for a tour operator that doesn’t offer riding elephants in any of its tours. Look for companies advertising ‘responsible’ or ‘ethical’ tourism and then read the small print to make sure that their definition of those terms matches yours. One such company is Barking Gekko, who design private tours incorporating cycling, kayaking, trekking, overnight stops in tree houses and visits to local schools and villages. They’re not cheap compared with the usual offerings you can pick up at any hostel in the city, but they go out of their way to ensure that local communities benefit from your visit through setting up and donating to community projects, employing local guides and office staff, and ensuring that your visit doesn’t impact the villagers’ way of life.
ELEPHANT SANCTUARIES
If you’d like to get up close to an elephant without feeling like you’ve contributed to its misery, the best option is to visit an elephant sanctuary. The Elephant Nature Park is based about an hour north of Chiang Mai and offers you the chance to hang out with elephants all day – feeding them, bathing them and petting them – without the option of riding them. It’s founder, Sangduen Lek Chailert, has dedicated most of her life to rescuing elephants that have been mistreated or injured. The park is now home to 75 elephants, which, despite being unrelated, have formed family herds and are free to lead relatively normal lives while recovering from physical and psychological trauma. It’s, without a doubt, the best option for elephant interactions in northern Thailand.
You can learn more about the issues elephants face at D Travels Round. This post features images and videos that will answer the question ‘Is riding elephants ethical?’ for once and for all.
Love this post. Several years ago, I used to think that in some situations riding elephants could be ok but now I definitely don’t think so! Would love to volunteer at Elephant Nature Park. I think, spending so much time in the travel blogging world, it’s easy to think that everyone now understands that riding elephants in unethical, but it’s important to remember there’s still a lot of people in the general public who aren’t aware. I will from time to time hear people saying they wanna do it, and always suggest them to look into it by reading posts like yours.
Emma recently posted..Mama Shelter Istanbul Review
Hi Emma! Thanks for your comment! Yes, I think you’re right. Bloggers have heard about this from other bloggers, but there are still a shocking number of tourists who don’t even know it’s an issue. I can understand why some people think it’s still ok. There are more and more companies out there who describe themselves as responsible and it’s quite possible that some of them are. I just struggle with why it’s so popular in the first place when there are places where your money is going to much better use and you still get to see the elephants. Almost everyone I’ve met who rode an elephant came away feeling guilty. I hope you make it to the Elephant Nature Park. It’s great! And thanks in advance for sharing my article if you hear of anyone who’s thinking about doing it.
I rode an elephant as part of my tour near Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, I didn’t give riding an elephant a second thought – I never knew about the harm the weight of humans damage elephants. In recent years, I’ve read many travel bloggers urge their readers not to ride elephants. I obviously know better now.
Rashaad recently posted..Home Sweet Home – Graduation
Yeah, I think it’s something that’s not really been talked about until quite recently. A few years ago, riding an elephant was just one of those things you did when you went to Thailand. It’s thanks to a few other bloggers that I was pre-warned and I’m really glad. I actually met quite a lot of travellers who regretted the elephant riding – not because they’d since learned more about the way some elephants are treated, but just because they got a sense that the elephant was distressed and it made them feel guilty.
Hi, thank you for this post.
I’m going to be a few days (alone) in north of Thailand (probably Chiang Mai, but not certain yet), so I was really interested in a 2 day trip. But 10000 Baht is a bit more than I would like to pay and I could not find serious trekking trips (without elephant riding on their pages) where they provide public group trips. Do you have any suggestions? On the other hand, is it ok to travel do such a trip alone? Or maybe you have any other suggestions for me to do in the northern part with a good part of nature and traditional live (or even close to bangkok).
Thank you for your answer.
Matt
Hi Matt! Thanks for your message. I’m afraid I don’t have any suggestions for you. I failed to find an affordable trekking company that didn’t allow you to ride elephants so I didn’t go trekking. If you’re really keen to do a trek, I suppose you could go with the most affordable company you can find that considers itself to be responsible and then skip the elephant riding part. Your money would still be supporting a company with questionable practices though. If you really want to help the elephants, the Elephant Nature Park is a fantastic experience. It’s not that cheap either, but it’s great to have the chance to get so close in a stunning environment and to know your money is going to a good cause. I’m sure you’d be fine doing one of these trips by yourself. I just don’t know that you’d have as much fun as with a group. Perhaps you might be able to get some people together at your hostel to split the cost of a private group tour… I really enjoyed Pai. I hope you have the time to visit there too. People tend to explore on motorbikes but you can get off and do some walking too. It’s very pretty, chilled out and fun :)