“Another Pattaya Elephant Dies Through Electrocution”

To-day again an electrocuted Elephant: it’s time that the Thai authorities are showing more responsibility concerning strickt rules and laws for the distribution and the installations of electricity! Lots of people and animals are dying unnecessarely due to nonchalance, negliciance, stinginess and lack of control and inspections concerning electrich distribution and installations from the side of the Electricity-board.

Another elephant is electrocuted in an elephant encampment on its way for a monthly checkup in Sattahip.

Pattaya 24th January 2010[PDN] This following incident of yet another electrocution of an elephant was reported yesterday, 23rd January at 5.30pm to Police Lieutenant Arnon Inphorng , (NaJomtien Police Investigator)

Mr. Uay Yuirum [61], stated that on the day in question, as he was riding his elephant Pung Saegjaun [50] in the rain to the Nern NaJomtien Elephant Camp in Sattahip, for her monthly check at the back of the elephant camp, he felt a surge of electricity through his leg and was thrown of his elephant onto a grass verge at the side of the road. At the same time as he was thrown, he felt his elephant shudder before she fell by the side of a high voltage electricity post.

Here the full sad story with more photos of negliance, nonchalance and, might be, stingyness in Pattaya Daily News:

www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2010/01/24/another-elephant-dies-through-electrocution/

Courtesy: Pattaya Daily News

Elephant eaters see no shame in jumbo meat

Villagers in Phrae province sustained by pachyderms in death, as they were in life

Read Bangkok Post

Breaking News 24/7 (from blog taragana.com)

“Thailand offers Bangkok elephants for adoption

BANGKOK, Thailand — Elephants idling outside discos or lumbering through traffic have been part of Bangkok’s colorful nightlife for nearly two decades. Now authorities want to send them back to the jungle.

Thai officials say they have come up with an innovative solution: offering the pachyderms for adoption.”……………

It seemed to me that there were already rules and laws to outlaw these suffering animals: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toni_uni/3815168192/in/set-72157610089606284/

but a la, who cares: let’s try to invent another solution when law-enforcements don’t work out! I only hope that this solution doesn’t activate certain groups to start an import-business into Bangkok to touch afterwards the adaption-funds again and so on.

“Elephants first arrived in Bangkok in the late 1980s after a logging ban made them redundant in forestry work. Since then, they have been trafficked into the city from rural Thailand and even neighboring Myanmar by politically connected gangs who count on corrupt government officials to look the other way.”……………………..

“This time, the campaign includes putting microchips in the elephants so officials can track their whereabouts, and trying to convince foundations to buy and relocate them.”………………..

All nice invents but how long does it take until the chips has been “sold out”???

I wasn’t too suspicious, one must give the counterpart once the benefice of the doubt isn’t it?

Unfortunately, childish as I was I went out of work for several weeks now in the surroundings of Sukhumvit?Asoke, Silom etc.

In spite of an eye-witness story about an elephant runned down at the corner of Sukhumvit soi 5 by a certainly drunk driver who reversed and rushed away direction Asoke leaving the elephant screaming on its knees, well, who cares, let’s say it was one of the last convulsions of two decades of abuse (nothing in the printed English press by the way) and in spite of a (sucessful) denouncement of a local Thai at the other side of Bangkok, which reached indeed the (Thai) television the misery-show seems to go on, only better hided for the tourist-eyes. It remembers me all of a sudden of a very short bit of film of Charlie Chaplin: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7599076870975062985&ei=wXXySokUg_SoA63nkOcM&q=charlie+chaplin+police+&hl=th&view=2&client=firefox-a#

One can “earn” 2.000 Baht by denouncing a brake of the “beast of burden-law” by phoning 1555 as the police seems not to be present or are (still) turning blind eyes, about what I’m informed already.

Now they seem to be noticed near Chokchai 4, Ladprao, Minburi and other places.

update at “THANK YOU”!

Unfortunately my suspicious thoughts are reality: I were last night informed that there can still be found in less touristic parts of BKK: very smart of the authorities to get the pressure off the lid in areas like Sukhumvit and Silom!! The still seems to roam and under the eyes of the man-in-brown (the Thai police): TiT (This is Thailand), so the war hasn’t come to an end!

THANK YOU Bangkok Metropolitan Government!

Although I didn’t see any elephants anymore in Bangkok I was sure that there are still roaming around, (in a city of 1.500.000 km2) in spite of long existing laws and rules, with their mahouts (and/or the ones which are behind this dirty “business”) not caring at all about the health of the suffering animal in spite of their supposed and general supposed poverty which doesn’t give a letter of save-conduct to torture a creature, who cannot defend itself, in this way. There’s no excuse whatsoever to expose defenceless animals in general to live in unhealthy and dangerous circumstances and, on top of that, to expose the population of a city to extreme dangers such an innocent animal can turn into as the elephant is still listed in the top of world’s most dangerous animals! Those mahouts were/are even that convinced about their unassailability which grew by means of the never present sanctions to protect animal and human environment that they became at last very insolent and strong that their way of selling food for their “hungry” victim was getting more and more convincing and even harsh when a tourist wasn’t interested to keep up this abuse but only wanted to take a photo as a free and legal user of the public road. How far can a community come when (local) authorities are turning blind eyes and are accepting behaviour against rules and laws!
I was informed a week or so before about the arrest of an abuser somewhere at the other side of the river; a local denounced a violation and last Tuesday three men were arrested in the Lat Phrao area and the two involved elephants are transported to Kanchanaburi’s Elephant Shelter. BRAVO!
When you are confronted with this kind of abuse you can finally safe the creature by phoning 1555 and…….. there will be active response!

Elephants NEVER forget!

Giants in a strange world

A revealing video made by Kirsten Highet concerning the Thai elephants and their abuse.

http://current.com/items/88104571_giants-in-a-strange-world.htm

Safari World Bangkok: very bad elephant performance

Animal-performance generally spoken is very disputable but this “performance” I have seen in Safari World is in my eyes distastefull and abusing

The start of the “performance”:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/toni_uni/3825546093/in/set-72157621928714999/

Then:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/toni_uni/3826345638/in/set-72157621928714999/

Turning round:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/toni_uni/3825546899/in/set-72157621928714999/

The set with photos concerning above mentioned abuse of Orangutans and tigers can be seen in my Flickr-album:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/toni_uni/sets/72157621928714999/

ROGUE ELEPHANT GORES TODDLER AT PATTAYA FLOATING MARKET

Updated: [October 24, 2009 ] :: 11:54:44

Pattaya, October 21, 2009, [PDN]: a 3-year-old boy was gored by an apparently rogue elephant during an elephant show at Pattaya Floating Market, sustaining serious injuries. When the boy’s father later approached the market management for recompense he was callously kept waiting for six hours before they deigned to see him. Mayor Ittipon Khunpleum says there will be no more elephant shows at the market.

Police Lieutenant General Thanadaj Dongtapiyachai of Pattaya Police was notified at 8pm on October 19 by Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital that a 3-year-old boy was in intensive care after being seriously gored by an elephant at Pattaya Floating Market, sustaining extensive tusk injuries to his chest, bottom and genitals, which required an emergency operation.

According to his father, Mr. Teerasak Panomai, the boy, called Krittanon aka Potter, had been taken by his family, who are on holiday in Pattaya from Udonthani, to watch a 5 o’clock elephant show at the Pattaya Floating Market. The star of the show was Pang Namfon, a five-year-old dancing elephant. Everything had been going normally when Potter walked over to Pang Namfon and gave the elephant a watermelon, whilst trying to take photos. “Suddenly,”
Mr. Teerasak said, “the elephant appeared to go crazy, for no apparent reason.” The elephant had apparently lifted the boy off the ground, goring him with its tusks in the process. An elephant keeper tried to intervene, using a hook in a vain attempt to stop the elephant, but it was a further 2 minutes before the elephant eventually dropped the boy, who was immediately rushed to hospital.

Continue reading this Pattaya Daily News-story with photo’s and don’t forget to see the video “Giants in a strange world” at the foot of the story by Kirsten Highet.

It’s time that the authorities don’t ignore the danger an elephant can be and that the responsibles behind these “exciting shows” only for the sake of making more money for their “business” don’t run and hide after an incident! Specially to blame the “management” of the Pattaya floating market who were so rude to let the father of the injured boy waiting for six hours whilst his sun was in intensive care to be able to have a discussion concerning this sad accident! A big shame of this “management-in-charge”.

ELEPHANT PARADE AMSTERDAM 5 september – 31 oktober 2009

From September onwards, a hundred full size art elephants will swarm the streets of Amsterdam: together, they form a remarkable open-air exhibition, the Elephant Parade, that is dedicated to the Asian elephant. After the successful editions in Rotterdam and Antwerp, the exhibition in Amsterdam will be the largest so far.

The Elephant Parade is founded by father and son Mike and Marc Spits. With their project, they aim to raise attention for the Asian elephant, that is threatened with extinction. Their project has proven to be succesful: the first two editions of the Elephant Parade, held in Rotterdam and Antwerp, raised a total amount of over 700,000 euro.  The benefits of the Elephant Parade are donated to the Elephant Family, the largest elephant charity in the world and was founded in 2002 by Mark Shand. He is a globetrotter, philantropist and writer and maker of the BBC documentary Queen of the Elephants.

Especially for the Elephant Parade Amsterdam, a tour is set out that will lead you along all the elephants that are located at several hotspots in the Amsterdam city centre: Museum Square, Spui, Westermarkt, Koningsplein, Kalvertoren…

Visit their site for all info! (English version)

Bezoek hun WEB-site voor alle info! (Nederlandse versie)

Courtesy: Elephant Parade