Don't visit elephant shows or camps

Edwin Wiek says that many of the baby elephants that tourists see at elephant camps were kidnapped from the wild and then beaten and tortured. While that’s probably true, even if they were domestic elephants, they still most likely were beaten and tortured, as I pointed out in a recent letter to this newspaper. So I want to join Mr Wiek in saying to the public that if you have one ounce of humanity in you, do not go to any of these elephant shows or elephant camps.

As I noted in my earlier letter, the one place you can go where the elephants are well treated is the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai. And I should add that the government does not contribute one baht to the park. The government refuses to do anything that might reduce the suffering of these poor animals. We, the foreigners, are the only hope the elephants have.

Eric Bahrt 

Pattaya