Writing: Purpose - Inform others of how animals are used for human benefit

Elephant Tragedy in Thailand By Sophia

In 1900 there were 300,000 elephants in the wild and 100,000 in captivity, but now there are 2,000 elephants in the wild and 4,000 elephants in captivity but elephants in captivity aren’t living the best life at all!

While in captivity elephants are being abused for the Thailanders benefits and entertainment. Elephants go threw brutal and painful training everyday and hardly get any food or water and several weeks of brutal training can leave different mental disabilities and also physical disabilities.

Elephants get captured and thrown in captivity at the age of 6-8 months. Elephants try to fight back but only get a bullhook in the head. In Chiang Mai there is a rehabilitation center that rescues injured and endangered elephants.

To help the rehabilitation of these beautiful animals, visit http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/

Elephant Abuse
By Andrew

If elephants are Thailand's symbol animal then why are the killing them off? In the 1900’s in Thailand, there was 300,000 wild elephants and 100,000 captive. Now, there are less than 2,000 wild elephants and about 4,000 captive elephants. Sure that's a lot less captive elephants, but that's even less wild elephants! The question is…. What happens to all those captive elephants? Lets start from the beginning, the very beginning.

Baby elephants are taken straight from their mother for “training”. The training consists of brutal beating and open gashes. In videos and images you can see the Mahout *Ma-hoot* (person controlling the elephants) poking or stabbing the mighty mammals with anything from bamboo  sticks to bull hooks and even whips and chains! During training elephants are deprived from food and water for days and sometimes even weeks! Also their tusks are sold as ivory!

After training the elephants are taken to the streets to ride, beg, or even perform “cool tricks or stunts!”. One of the acts they will make the elephants perform is to paint a picture. The way the Mahout will get the elephant to perform this “trick” is that they will pinch the elephant's ear to get it to move its trunk up and down. Also if you see an elephant swinging its head around, that is a sign of mental or stress disorder. Another thing they will make the elephants do is illegal logging, which is when they make the elephants carry heavy logs up extremely steep hills in the blazing sun!

But you can help! By visiting elephant rescue centres, cruel Mahouts won't be able to endanger any more elephants! One elephant rescue and rehabilitation centre in Chiang Mai run entirely on donations! So, beg your parents (or teacher) to take you to Thailand, so you can save the elephants, not kill them!