Thailand - Elephants

There are many elephant camps across Thailand that now house the majority of captive elephants. With the advent of heavy forestry mechanical plant and machinery the Thai elephant has generally fallen out of favour (for now) as a forestry tool - Elephants have to be fed and that costs money. The way that elephant owners have developed the elephant camps gives the captive elephants a reasonable standard of living with an assured upkeep as long as the visitors keep paying to go and see them.

The elephants are housed in clean accommodation and fed a bulk standard elephant diet. They appear to be treated well by most of the handlers. The elephants do not appear to be stressed. With regular contact with visitors who pet them give them tit-bits and treat them well they appear to have a good life.