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
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
