Ethical Elephant Sanctuary Office

5 Lia Holland - 4 years ago

Support this small, new, and very sweet sanctuary! And please write them a review!

Ethical Elephant Sanctuary was one of my favorite experiences in Thailand! The adult elephants are lovely and friendly, the two babies are adorable terrors, and it is so wonderful to see these rescued logging elephants healthy and cared for. Please choose this sanctuary, and don't ride elephants anywhere ever!

The visit is very simple and sweet. You put on a Karin shirt so the elephants know that you're going to give them treats, then feed them sugar cane. Then, you take a walk up a hill to see the elephants eat, scratch themselves on trees, etc.

After lunch, which was simple and delicious rice with egg, soup, and fresh fruit, you change into your swimsuit and go play in the mud and creek with the elephants and Rudy, who might be the biggest amount of trouble I've ever met in one human. Then, rinse off as much mud as you can, say goodbye, and drive back.

Sam, who is one of the guides, also takes great pictures and posts them every day on the facebook page, so you can put your phone away and not worry about anything but having as much fun as possible with the elephants. Sam took some of my favorite pictures from my whole trip, so I'm very grateful to him!

I chose to stay overnight and while the lodgings were primitive in a one-room hut, there was a bug net and I was comfortable. Even had a cute little farm kitten come sleep with me! If you are the type who likes camping, I definitely recommend staying at least two nights.

In the one night I was there, I hopped in the back of a truck and rode up to a village, where we cross-loaded bags of rice and the locals gave us an entire truck full of bananas to feed the elephants. We also tried the local rice whiskey. If anyone tries to give you a little green berry to eat with the whiskey, do not eat it. It is disgusting and they are crazy to think otherwise.

In the morning I joined the crew for an errand up to another village, and visited the village school to play with the littlest kids. Then I joined in again on the elephant visit before heading back to Chiang Mai.

What sticks with me the most about this place is how much everyone involved loves the elephants. Teri, who runs the sanctuary, is passionate about rescuing as many as he can from the logging camps in Burma. He showed me pictures of the beautiful matriach elephant bloody and with electrodes to shock her, pullng a giant log down the road. Happy to say that she, her daughter, and her new granddaughter are now all at the sanctuary. But she remembers, you can tell.
It was also powerful to learn about the roles of elephants in families, how they are passed from parent to child. Each elephant has their human with them, and one man at the sanctuary is teaching his youngest son to carry on the tradition. Unfortunately, I don't speak Burmese, which is where most of the men are from, so I could only ask Sam and Teri and Rudy questions.

The only thing I would change is that I wish I'd spent more time here! Thank you Ethical Elephant Sanctuary!

1 Cynthia Lee - 4 years ago

Upon arrival, we fed bamboo to the elephants. It was fine in the beginning as we were so carried away. Everything went downhill when the elephants were asked to give kisses like things they would do in a circus. Soon we notice whenever the elephants wanted to walk away, the mahouts and guides would always make them come back. We also saw one of the elephants wearing a chain. When we asked about it, the guide stuttered and said the elephant was just like a pet, like a dog, so it needed to be chained. We were skeptical and were starting to worried we had chosen a fake ethical elephant sanctuary.

I could not believe my eyes when I saw one of the mahout pulled out a pointy tool and stabbed an elephant. We wanted to leave instantly but there was no way as there were only one way out (the shuttle) so we decided not to join any of the activities.

After the feeding, they were dragged to cross the river. The mahouts pulled their ear and trunks to get them to move. Then the elephants had to take a mud bath so that the tourists could have a nice photo. The elephants made crying sounds and they were clearly not enjoying it and when a mommy elephant tried to escape with her baby, the mahout punched its trunk with his fist. We decided to hold up our phones and take videos in hope of protecting them. We were heartbroken that people (even self-prolaimed vegans) seemed to enjoy it so much without realizing that the elephants only did it because they were terrified.

After people finished taking their instagram-worthy photos, the mahouts took the elephants to the river. People were asked to splash water on them. The elephants stood still while people were having their fun. Then the mahouts made the elephants spray water to create a false image that the elephants were enjoying themselves. Whenever the elephants sprayed water, the mahout would sneakily give them a treat. Everything was just a show. Everyone was screaming of joy, some guys were even wrestling in the water right in front of the elephants. I just could not imagine how damaging it was to the elephants’ sensitive ears.

When it was time for us to leave, the elephants were shoved to go up a trek to entertain another group of people. Until the day they die, they will have no freedom in this place. Whenever they want to do their own thing, they are hit, poked, shouted at, or have their ears and trunk pulled... just so you could be amused. The word “Ethical” to them is just a marketing term to sugarcoat their greed for money and the word “volunteering” is only an excuse for you to join this type of tour and feel good about yourself. If you truly love these magnificent creatures, stay away from these elephant sanctuaries. That’s the greatest gift you can ever offer.

1 G M - 3 years ago

The dark truth hidden behind all those glossy Instagram shots of people at “elephant sanctuaries” (including this one) is a disturbing culture of economic greed, cruelty and animal abuse. On the surface of it all, it sounded like the most magical experience, being able to positively contribute towards elephant welfare, that was until I quickly realized the sad and disturbing reality of it all. Wanting to see and interact with elephants is a common desire of many people who travel to Asia, but most places like this place, is not the way to do it. I unfortunately did not do enough research prior to going and I thought maybe as long as they didn’t offer elephant rides, that it would be ethical.. man, was I ever wrong. Elephants are trained and subjected to situations where they wouldn’t be if they had the option to choose, such as riding, guiding, bathing or even just touching them. Anywhere that offers anything I just listed is NOT a sanctuary. I am one of the few who witnessed first hand an elephant being stabbed with a knife because it no longer wanted to be in the water, where all the tourists were throwing mud and water at her. I froze in disbelief and became numb hearing the elephant cry in agony and pain. I felt sick to my stomach and shed tears of anger and sadness that someone could harm such a beautiful, gentle, and kind creature. After doing hours of research, I discovered that Elephants are chained for 12-15 hours straight with no access to food, water or socialization and are punished if they don’t do what they’re told by their trainers. As much as I am ashamed that I paid and supported these horrific and unethical places, I feel like I was meant to be there to witness what I did, so I could be the voice for the voiceless and educate others on the reality of how these animals are treated. Please think twice before visiting, posting or liking an Instagram photo of these awful and misleading places and do your research on legitimate elephant sanctuaries where they are protected, cared for and admired from afar. #VoiceForTheVoiceless ????????
Much love - G x x

5 Summer Candelaria - 3 months ago

Ethical Elephant Sanctuary is a perfect example of enjoying these creatures while respecting their natural behaviors and kind demeanor. This was a truly magical experience.

5 Alexandra Mi. - 4 years ago

I just spent one week at Ethical Elephant Sanctuary and have to say that it was one of the most amazing weeks I've ever had!
I wanted to get a closer look at this kind of animal care and wanted to learn about Karen people. I am more than happy about what I have seen. The family and friends who work there care so much about their animals and guests. Every day I could feed and bath with the elephants. I also spent several evenings at the campfire with baby elephants. I visited a local school and temple, saw beautiful waterfalls and helped to plant grass. And if it wasn't enough, we went to a Karen wedding at my last evening.
Not only the locals but also the Thai guides from Chiang Mai were incredibly friendly and funny. Every day I was happy to meet them with new visitors.
I highly recommend this place, you will find a lot of love and caring for the elephants.
I will definitely visit this place again, I miss it already!
See you and all the best,
Ola

5 Rebecca Liu - 4 years ago

We had done a ton of research in looking for an elephant sanctuary that really treated their elephants well and we decided to try Ethical Elephant Sanctuary. It's run by the Karen people and their elephants are rescue elephants from the northern border. One elephant was an elephant who had stepped on a land mine and so has a bum leg. Another was rescued from loggers who used it as a work elephant.

Our day was off to a great start when we were picked up at our location by an air conditioned van. I had read a lot of reviews about pickup trucks with benches that were hot and uncomfortable but our van was new, air conditioned, clean and very comfortable. The drive up was about 1.5 hours with a bathroom stop in between for coffee and snacks. We got to "meet" the elephants, feed them, give them mud baths and then rinse them off. There were two babies that were just adorable! You can tell the elephants were treated well and have a great relationship with their mahouts. We did not see any elephants being chained or prodded by sticks and picks but rather they followed the voice commands of the mahouts and were rewarded with bananas. The baby elephants looked especially happy and were running around having fun. During lunch (a yummy lunch of rice, vegetables, chicken and potato soup and fruit) the cutest little kitten came up to us and just wanted to be hugged and held. He's the tiniest little animal on the property but you can tell from the way he walks he thinks he owns the place!

The sanctuary works hard to give the elephants a safe and healthy place to live and are doing a great job taking care of them. This was a wonderful and memorable experience and I'm so glad we went with Ethical Elephant Sanctuary! I wish them all the best and would recommend this place to anyone!

5 Nicole Eves - 3 years ago

Staff were awesome and you could see they really cared for the elephants. The ride up to the sanctuary was in air conditioning and lunch was really good. Our time with the elephants was an experience of a lifetime! These elephants are happy and healthy. I highly recommend to everyone. This was by far my favourite thing to do in Chiang Mai!