Adventures to Elephant Nature Park

This week, Pacific Discovery embarked on an exciting, strenuous, yetrewarding adventure at Elephant Nature Park founded by a remarkable Thai
woman named Lek.

We arrived with not much knowledge of the exploitation and cruelty that
elephants suffer not only in Thailand, a place where the elephant is a
religious icon, but all throughout Asia. In Thailand alone, there are only
around 5,000 elephants left today, compared to it's original population of
100,000 elephants who once roamed the beautiful jungles of Thailand.

The passionate staff members at ENP explained to us in depth what exactly
these magnificent creatures typically go through in Asia as either: logging
workers, circus performers, street beggars, tourist ride attractions, and
even hunted for their tusks in the ivory industry.

ENP is home to 40 elephants with all different backgrounds - either
traumatic or a relatively "lucky" upbringing. Most went through the Phajaan
- a cruel, abusive and demeaning training course for elephants who are
forced to work for the mere pleasure of humans, along with being the main
source of income for their greedy owners. The goal during the Phajaan is to
break the elephants spirits, so that they can obey their masters due to the
strong fear of consequence they now possess.

As we learned more about the immoral treatment of elephants in Thailand,
our volunteer work, although tiring under the sweltering sun, seemed more
satisfying and rewarding. It even proved to be more enjoyable as we sang
and danced with Apple, our enthusiastic staff instructor, and laughed and
joked with our younger instructor nicknamed Bang, who are both local
natives of Thailand.

We did everything from cleaning the elephant dung, sweeping the pathways
they walk, bathing these massive creatures, and preparing an never-ending
abundance of food for the elephants to eat. We also helped Lek and her team
make powerful poster signs for the Save the Elephant Foundation march on
October 4th. Their mission is to spread awareness of this injustice and end
cruelty for ALL animals.

The work pushed us all outside our comfort zones, but the knowledge, love,
and respect we gained from this week will stay with us forever.

Sophia Manzanares