Bring the Elephant Home

Bring the Elephant HOME, a Dutch organisation founded by Antoinette van de Water has started her education tour.

Together with two elephants the 'elephant rescue team', total of 12 people, is making their way through the heart of Thailand (including Ayuthaya, Lopburi and Sukhothai). The group is staying at temples and is giving 'elephant' workshops at local primary schools.

Showing the beauty of the elephants and the Thai culture the team hopes to raise awareness about the importance of nature conservation and the problem of elephants on the street.
In Ayutthaya over 200 schoolchildren attended the three hour 'elephant' workshop and participated in an interactive English 'elephant' quiz and art competition.

In addition, six students and two monk students were given a scholarship, to help them with their study in the future. During the period of stay, total 6 days, many villagers passed by the camp to meet the elephants and get to know more about them.

Some brought their sick cats and dogs who were helped immediately by the team's animal doctor. In total 100 dogs and cats were treated at two different temple sites. In this way the team wants to show their gratitude to the places they are staying and make the environment a better place where animals and humans can live together in peace.

100 years ago there were at least 100,000 elephants in Thailand, now sadly that number has dropped to less then 5,000 (about 2,000 in the wild and 3,000 in captivity) and the population is still estimated to be falling at over 3% a year.

Something must be done to stop this decline or there will be very few elephants left in the future.

Elephants often die needlessly due to accidents, injuries, illnesses, and conflicts with man People experienced in looking after elephants are getting fewer every year. Well over 100 elephants will die this year in Thailand.

Elephants are slow and difficult to breed, only about 4 offspring in a life time, male elephants can be aggressive and dangerous at certain times (when in musth), few offspring are born, the young may be mistreated and die. Few people are aware how serious the situation is.