At the time the policy was announced, I was thrilled.
As a die-hard animal lover, I am extremely sensitive to animal welfare, any perceived lack thereof, and animal tourism in general. I have a hard time visiting zoos and aquariums (even when I know that many are working to protect endangered species), I will never see a circus, I hate Sea World, and the idea of riding or playing with wild animals makes me shudder.
I know that humans have used animals as pets and workers for all of history, but there is a clear line in my mind between training a horse to help on a farm, and teaching an elephant how to paint. In both cases, the animal has to be trained to respond to human commands, but in one situation, the animal is respected for the value it brings to its work and in the other, well, you get stupid paintings made by an animal that is often mistreated, trained under excruciating conditions and basically doing none of the things an elephant is meant to do.
Ok, I’ll get off my giant soapbox now, and tell you about a beautiful sanctuary in Phuket that is changing the lives of some of Thailand’s most vulnerable residents.
Phuket Elephant Sanctuary
The Phuket Elephant Sanctuary opened in 2016 to house some of the island’s retired and abused animals. Today in Phuket there are 240 Asian elephants, all working in the tourism or logging industries. There are not currently any wild Asian elephants on the island.
In order to maintain its high ethical standards, Phuket Elephant Sanctuary has many, many rules and regulations in place. In addition to limiting their elephant residents to just 18 (1.5 acres per elephant), they often spend a lot of money to purchase the animals from their previous owners (often $50,000 US or more). Elephants are provided wide open spaces to roam, bathe and eat all day, and at night they sleep in large fence-free enclosures. Today, the sanctuary has 8 elephants, with several more coming later this year. All are females and all are over the age of 35 (elephants can live into their 70s).
While the sanctuary hopes to eventually welcome males and babies, they care a lot about the safety and comfort of the pack, so they have kept their residents to the ladies only, thus far.
Humans are allowed to visit twice a day during two well-orchestrated sessions, protecting the elephants from frequent intrusions. There is no riding or swimming with the elephants. Humans get a chance to feed treats to the elephants, which they happily devour as quickly as they are handed fistfuls of bananas, watermelons, and cucumbers. One elephant resident who was rescued from a Thai circus is very, very comfortable with humans and she is okay being touched, but the rest are for watching only.
Once treat time is over, the elephants go about their routines. During twice-daily shower time, elephants eagerly snoop around with their trunks on the lookout for more treats.
For the rest of the day, each elephant is followed around by a personal handler (their ‘best friend’ who is with them during waking hours and lives onsite). The elephants spread out over the grounds and commence eating.
They never stop eating.
Visitors are split into small groups of 8-10 people and escorted around the grounds by a guide. You learn the history of each elephant, where they came from, and their individual quirks. Then, after seeing all of the elephants around the park, the visitors gather around a massive muddy pool and one or two elephants come by for a dip. They can stay in as long as they like.
When we were visiting, one elephant literally swam underwater with her trunk raised to breathe for nearly 20 minutes. Another elephant just walked through the pool to cool off and sauntered away.
The sanctuary uses the hefty visitors’ fees (nearly $100 USD per person) to maintain the grounds, purchase new elephants, and staff a massive crew who are involved in caring for the animals and their human onlookers. After a morning of observing the elephants, a full vegetarian lunch is served to visitors, featuring steamed rice, Thai curries, veggies, and plenty more. The Phuket Elephant Sanctuary also provides water, snacks, and soft drinks before and after the tour for visitors, all included in the price.
The sanctuary is also about education, and they start each tour with a video about how to (and how not to) interact with the elephants in the park. They also show some footage of how elephants are trained, a brutal process that is difficult to watch. This education reinforces the importance of what the staff is doing here, and made us happy to support the cause.
If you are interested in learning more about Asian elephants, the charitable organization Asian Elephant Support is a good place to start.
Also, I was curious about how TripAdvisor is maintaining its animal tourism policy and how it enforces and upholds its standards. I found lots of great information via their FAQs. Also, they are happy to review any ticketed listings if a visitor is concerned that an attraction’s practices aren’t up to standard. All of that contact info is readily available on the site.
It should be no surprise that Phuket Elephant Sanctuary has tickets proudly available via TripAdvisor, and has a Certificate of Excellence.
I’ve wanted to visit an elephant sanctuary for many years, but I was nervous about elephant welfare and didn’t want to contribute to an organization that would be upsetting or worse. I’m so happy we found Phuket Elephant Sanctuary, animal tourism we feel good about and are happy to support!
I loved this review! Visiting an elephant sanctuary is #1 on my travel bucket list!