The Truth About Riding Elephants: A Deep Dive Into Elephant Tourism

Elephant tourism has exploded in Thailand. Tourists line up to ride the gentle giants for a unique travel experience and fantastic photo opp.  Was this on your travel bucket list?  Well, you might want to think again.  

There is a dark side to elephant tourism, and going for a fun ride isn’t as harmless as you may have thought.

First off, elephants are massive, and it’s easy to think they won’t notice a couple hundred extra pounds up top. But that is not the case.  Elephant backs are anatomically designed to support the weight of the elephant below, not a rider above. Rather than a spine composed of smooth disks that is conducive to bearing weight, they have bones that protrude upward.  Putting pressure on these bones pushes them down and damages the surrounding tissue, which leads to physical trauma and pain.  (Click HERE to learn more.)

Riding elephants inflicts physical damage, but the real abuse lies in the domestication process.

Elephants caught in the wild are resistant to being domesticated. Tamers use “The Crush”, or ‘phajaan’, to force them into obedience.  “Crush” refers to literally crushing the animal’s spirit. Some techniques include tying the creature up so it is immobile, beating it with sticks and chains, forcing it into sleep deprivation and starvation, and stabbing the ears with nails and sticks to pulverize the animal’s spirit down into compliance. 

Think that’s bad?  What they do to the babies is worse. Elephants exhibit behaviors that suggest they are capable of joy, happiness, sadness, depression, and grief, and there is a strong familial mother child connection.  Young elephants are easier to train than adults. So itt is common for elephant hunters to rip babies away from their mothers to sell them off.  The babies go through intense separation anxiety, depression, and loneliness that is coupled with the physical abuse and phajaan by the trainers in order to beat them down into seeing the trainer as a new mother figure. Click HERE to learn more.

The atrocities for elephant tourism don’t end there.

Once sufficiently “crushed”, the elephants are kept in inhumane living conditions. They are tied up in uncomfortably small spaces, deprived of adequate nutrition, don’t get proper medical attention, and aren’t free to socialize.  

Tourism in Thailand has skyrocketed in the last decade, reaching nearly 40 million visitors in 2019. Riding an elephant is usually on the top of the Thailand bucket list, and the number of elephant rides, shows, and attractions has risen to meet demand.  Such attractions cover up the abusive underpinnings to make a profit, and as a result, most people are oblivious to the animal rights violations they are unknowingly supporting.   I’ll admit riding an elephant was certainly on my list when I found out I would be in Thailand. I was completely unaware of the harmful repercussions.  

So, what can we do?

First off, don’t engage in any type of elephant tourism, whether it be a ride or a show.  Business doesn’t exist without a customer, so simply don’t be a customer. 

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While that may be an obvious no-no, it can be tricky to tell if a “sanctuary” is actually as ethical as it proclaims.  I went to the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary in Pattaya to get my elephant fix in what I thought was the right way.  For $70 USD I got to feed the rescued elephants, give them a mud bath (hello spa day!), then go for a swim with the gentle giants. I walked away sporting my cool hippie poncho feeling my humanitarian glow radiating out.

But was I actually doing the right thing?

On a rainy Monday morning, I went down the rabbit hole of researching elephant tourism. It became apparent that elephants aren’t meant to eat, bathe, walk and swim two times a day on command.  Despite my good intentions, in hindsight I realize that I was just engaging in a different type of elephant tourism. It is certainly more humane than a circus or elephant ride experience, but it’s still not 100% ethical.  

There are true elephant conservation parks and sanctuaries in Thailand, and seeing the beautiful creatures can still be a part of your vacation. Check out this article from The Guardian and this guide from Backpacker for a place to start. And be sure to do your research before going.

Ultimately, the best weapon in fighting the mistreatment and abuse of elephants is knowledge.  Spread the word about the grisly world of elephant tourism to help bring it to a stop one ride at a time.