Stories from the ENP

Each visitor to the Elephant Nature Park leaves with his own story. Here is one recent account of journalist Anthony C. LoBaido's visit to the ENP, published World Net Daily just a month ago. For the full story, which includes detailed information on the running of the park and the volunteer experience therein, you can download the entire PDF below.

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"CHIANG MAI, Thailand – They say an elephant never forgets. But those majestic creatures who are the national symbol of Thailand may be forgiven for perhaps wishing they could forget the abuse, injury and death they've suffered in a society where their elephant birth certificates often amount to death sentences.

Their fate includes encounters with land mines that leave them with feet blown off, torture from hooks, spears and knives in the hands of humans, chain-saw attacks by ivory hunters, spine damage from trekking platforms and even drug abuse. Yet as the morning mist rises over the lush river valley in this slice of heaven otherwise known as the "Elephant Nature Park," a herd of formerly tortured and abused but surviving animals is making tracks to the Mae Tang River, its pristine waters flowing silently under a sky turned purple and orange by the rising sun.

They enter the water, one by one, males, aunties and babies alike. There's Max, a giant 13-foot-tall elephant (said to be the second tallest elephant in all of Thailand) whose legs were broken by an 18-wheel truck during the homeless phase of his life. B.K. has only one tusk. After being drugged and chained to a tree, ivory poachers took a chainsaw to his right rusk; B.K. awakened and chased away the men before they could cut off the other tusk.

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Jokia had both her eyes stabbed and shot out, because after giving birth to a baby the baby rolled down a hill and died, and Jokia refused to continue working.

One by one, the elephants enter the water, submerge, and soon reappear. They shake their ears emphatically and spray water from their long, sensitive trunks. "Doot-doo-da-doot!" they trumpet, seemingly in unison. It is an exhilarating scene.

Before long the "elis" are engaging in friendly trunk pulls and jumping in happy playfulness. Standing on the shore of the river and taking in this wildly maverick, idyllic spectacle is the guardian angel of Thailand's elephants. Her jet black hair falls over her slender shoulders as she smiles her electrifying smile by flashing bright white teeth.

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Her name is "Lek," which means "small" in the Thai language. At 5-feet, 2-inches, it would be easy to dismiss Lek Chailert, instead of recognizing her status as one of the most heroic people (man or woman) on planet Earth. In fact, she's a woman that Paul McCartney, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Meg Ryan all have sought out regarding her work with Thailand's abused elephants. She's been featured on CNN, Animal Planet, The Discovery Channel, Time Magazine (selected as one of "Asia's Heroes") as well as National Geographic.

Yet since this remarkable Thai remains a kind and humble woman; she would never tell you any of those things outright. But she shares with WND the story of how she came to be the savior of Thailand's elephants.

It is a fairy tale about a little girl who was given an elephant at age five that also includes the dark side of murder, abandonment, slander, a courtroom showdown and physical assaults with fists and guns.

The last chapter is yet to be written, but for now, it has culminated in her becoming the human voice for Thailand's elephants."

To read more, download the PDF below!