Issue link: https://nest.uberflip.com/i/433832
I t's hard to believe, but the gentle, lumbering elephant that children see in zoos and cartoons is one of the most abused and endangered wild animals in Asia. The abuse is particularly horrific in Thailand, where the traditional practice of phajaan (the breaking of the elephant spirit) still happens daily. Baby elephants are stolen from their mothers, tied down, deprived of food and water for days, and tortured until their spirit is "broken." The elephants endure beatings with nailed boards and stabbings in their fragile inner ears, among other horrors. The torture is so severe that many baby elephants die during this ritual. The phajaan may have superstitious origins in ancient Thailand, but its practice today is all too real and lucra- tive. The elephants that survive phajaan, are used in the tourist and illegal logging trades. Elephants give tour- ists rides, paint pictures, beg on the hot streets, and are forced to drag heavy logs—none of which are natu- ral behaviors, and many of which deform or break the elephants' spines. Most of the logging elephants are addicted to amphetamines, which are used to keep them awake and working for days on end without breaks for food, water or rest. Elephants are one of the most intelligent and social animals on earth, yet they are often kept isolated from other elephants, confined on tight chains - barely able to move a step in any direction, they are stabbed re- peatedly in the head with a hook or in the back with a long nail, and they live in filthy environments strewn with garbage, standing in their own waste. Lek has said that when she sees these elephants they are like "zom- bies" and have what she terms as "dead eyes" devoid of any hope. Elephants can live to be 80 years old and many will spend their entire lives in such conditions. This treatment can often be attributed to their mahout or elephant handler. These men come from the poorest of communities and derive their income from the tour- ist trade and the popularity of elephants. It is a tragic A baby elephant named Golden One opened Lek Chailert's heart decades ago. Today, her life is about saving this species from abuse and bringing awareness to the desperate plight of elephants today. Pause for a Cause