Submitted by Isabel Gomez on the 2017 winter session program in Australia and Thailand sponsored by the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics…
After traveling to several different cities throughout Thailand, I would have to say Chang Mai is my favorite. The people have beautiful personalities, the city is less busy and there are more activities to do. My absolute favorite activity from this past week was visiting a rescued elephant sanctuary. These elephants came from circuses, labor farms, logging, and were sent to Baan Chang Elephant Park where they are able to live out their lives with their intended purpose. They have rescued 45 elephants and there was a recent birth of a 53 day old one! They eat, sleep, walk, and I learned are extremely social elephants with feelings. Hearing about the background of where some of the elephants had come from was truly shocking. One elephant was sent to the camp two years ago after killing his owner. The owner used him for logging and would hit him with a spear whenever the tasks were not done right. Elephants have astonishing memories. One day the owner turned his back on the elephant and got picked up by the trunk and thrown across the room and died. The park received a phone call asking for the elephant. Another moving story is hearing about the poaching problem in Thailand. One meter of an elephant tusk can go for $3,000,000. I was just incredibly shocked and moved by how gentle and friendly these elephants were after going through such traumatic experiences. It definitely moved me more because these are problems we never really hear about from our side of the world. But after seeing the after effects first hand, and riding, feeding and bathing elephants, I want to help bring more attention to the issues they face. These creatures were truly beautiful and we hear about these issues, but I was truly shocked by the culture here of how mistreated a native creature is in this country.