Before I went to Thailand I had decided I wouldn't go to any of the commercial elephant parks to see the elephants perform as I don't like to see exploitation of animals. Had I been visiting longer I would have loved to have visited the Elephant Nature Park which is a sanctuary and rescue center for elephants, but my time was restricted.

As I mentioned in my orphanage post I had met Pat who offered to take me out sightseeing for the day on my last day. When she picked me up she explained quite excitedly that she was taking me to the Maesa Elephant Camp to see the elephant show. I didn't want to see performing elephants but not wanting to offend her, thanked her and off we went.

The camp is set in a tropical valley and was quite an impressive setup. The elephants roam around with their mahouts and are fed banana's and sugar cane by tourists. The mahouts allowed the elephants to wander up to people sitting at picnic tables and stretch their trunks to pinch food, this caused much screaming and seemed to keep the mahouts amused.

The elephants bathed in the river and spent time playing together which was enjoyable watch. I did notice the affection the mahouts seemed to have for the elephants and although they carried a spike with them, I didn't see any of them used.

From the website "At the turn of the twentieth century there were over one hundred thousand elephants in Thailand, today there are less than five. Through research, years of trial and error and a determination to succeed, Maesa now has a very successful breeding programme. Only the best bulls and cows are selected for the procreation programme which has lead to the birth of
many healthy baby elephants"

Then came time for the show. I sat there feeling very uncomfortable as I watched the elephants play soccer, paint and throw darts. I guess it's a catch 22. The performances attract the tourist, which brings the money for the park to be functional. Myself I would have been happy just walking around watching the elephants interact with each other.

In summary I can say that the elephants appeared to be well looked after and not physically abused. It really gives us food for thought, are Maesa doing the right thing by having these performances or not? I honestly don't know.