Spend enough time in Thailand, and you’ll learn about the dark side of elephant tourism: chains, bullhooks, torture. But Elephant Nature Park, a popular rescue and rehabilitation centre for the country’s national animal, offers an experience more ethical than — and arguably just as thrilling — as elephant riding and shows. Before reading on, I […]
The Ethics of Riding an Elephant in Thailand
If only every visitor to Thailand with the bucket-list dream of riding an elephant knew the torture many of them endure to make that dream come true. Or to paint them a colourful picture. Or to give them that massage on the beach. It’s the dark side of elephant tourism and, in Thailand, virtually inescapable. […]