Please Sign: End The Torture!

The wild capture of endangered Asian Elephants is illegal in both Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), yet illegal abduction, smuggling and trade of calves and juveniles continues unabated within Thailand's national parks and bordering forests of Myanmar. It is estimated that as many as 50 to 100 calves are extirpated from their homes and families each year to supply the elephant tourism trade in Thailand. According to conservationists, journalists and undercover investigators, most of the captive elephants now in the Thai tourist trade are victims of this illegal market that threatens the survival of endangered Asian Elephants and is responsible for their widespread exploitation and abuse. 

 

Illegal smuggling includes mothers and bond members being gunned down so smugglers can abduct grieving calves and juveniles. The young elephants once captured are transported to "safe-houses" along the Thai-Myanmar border where they are subjected to a brutal, barbaric, spirit-breaking ‘domestication’ ritual referred to as “Phajaan” or “Crushing”. During this ritual the young elephants are bound, starved and beaten for days until they are a mere shadow of their original selves. During this torture, calves and juveniles often die from beatings, starvation and trauma; all are said to lose their souls from heartbreak and grief. For every wild captured calf that lives to see a tourist camp in Thailand, it is estimated that up to two others will die as a result of this ‘domestication’ ritual. The elephants that survive are broken and only fear keeps them tethered to their human tormentors.

This has huge implications for tourists visiting Thailand. To ride one of these magnificent animals, participate in elephant entertainment or feed and photograph young elephants begging in the streets is to support the illegal abduction, killing and torture of Asian Elephant.

 

Please sign and share these two petitions to help end this trade! These petitions are initiated by The Elephant Nature Park and Friends of The Asian Elephant.

 

Sign Petition to Stop the cruel and inhumane ritual of “Crushing”

 

Sign Petition to Help elephants get off the streets of Thailand

Photo credit: Still photo from video http://youtu.be/PvTnJrqx0X8

When They Are Gone

 

 

 

 

Please click on the banner, copy and share!  Help us get the word out that we must do all we can to save this magnificent species!

 

Thank you!

Wake Up!

In our elephant advocacy work we frequently find ourselves pleading for humanity to ‘wake up’ before it is too late. ‘Awakening’ or ‘Waking Up’ is a term used to express our desire for individual/mass consciousness to evolve or awaken from a dream like state, often referred to as ignorance or illusion. The premise is that mind or consciousness is lulled into a kind of slumber through acculturation and personal ego resulting in a malaise of arrogance, indifference and despondency. Awakening transmutes perception emboldening us to live outside the box, beyond personal conditioning. One of the magical side effects of being ‘awake’ is the awareness of our interdependence and connection with all living things. We are no longer mesmerized by our self-contained thoughts and stories of me and what I want. This awakening, this metamorphoses of mind and heart, dispels separation and apathy.

 

 It is our experience that this ‘waking up’ process is occurring in each of us and as it unfolds it reveals the truth behind the myths driving our entrenched lives. Myths like: development and progress at all cost, dominion is our god given right and the Earth’s wildlife and resources exist for trade and profit. Part of advocating for elephants is waking up to the genocide humanity is unleashing on countless numbers of species and the willingness to look at what is driving the unmitigated slaughter of the world’s elephants. The ivory poaching crisis is haunting in complexity and is bigger than our minds imagined, including archaic traditions steeped in reckless disregard for wildlife, criminal underworlds, merciless syndicates, organized terrorist groups, gangsters, weapon cartels and corrupt diplomats, governments and kingpins. It reads like a dark crime novel. It rocks our highest ideals and shatters our perceptions. The elephants are in the middle of a bloody war subsidized by global ignorance and a hysterical craving for money and power. Most of us worry whether such a war can be won and at what cost.

As the elephant’s destiny hangs in the balance, it is disturbing and shameful that they must endure such savagery while humanity plods along struggling to evolve or ‘wake up’; it is a moral tragedy to say the least. Unfortunately, it seems to be the process...for now. So for those of us impassioned by these majestic mammals and striving for their protection, we must continue to broaden our lens and stay awake. What we do in this moment reverberates through time. It may not feel like enough, but we may be laying the foundation for future generations of both elephants and humans.

~Written by Elephant Advocacy~

Photo credit: Everything about this image says, “wake up”! Thank you to photographer Billy Dodson for this beautiful image. Please stay up on Billy’s upcoming travels in Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa with the African Wildlife Foundation. He will be addressing AWF’s anti-poaching efforts. 

Vanishing Eden

“I have had over one hundred sleeps in Africa amongst the winter thorns and Marula trees and more now than ever do I feel compelled to tell the stories of this vanishing Eden.

 

I am not sure we could ever prepare ourselves to lose the battle on protecting our world’s wildlife.

If we do, it will take with it, the most humane part of us.

We can no longer turn away from a situation we alone have created; nor can we ever look to anyone, but ourselves, and

ask why has this been taken from us.

So from this point on...we will either find or lose our souls."

This beautiful reflection is by Robyn Gianni. Robyn is a passionate photographer, journalist, conservationist and traveler. Please visit her portfolio of stunning images and stirring words.

Photo credit: Robyn Gianni

Not On Our Watch!