An Edinburgh teacher and her mum are appealing to the public to help them save an elephant who has fallen victim to the tourism trade in Thailand.
Katie Loudon, 28, and her mum Caroline, 59, are aiming to raise £26,000 for a 50-year-old Asian elephant, Bua Bann, so that she can join the Happy Elephant Home (HEH), a sanctuary that looks after elephants that have suffered abuse in Thailand's tourism industry.
Katie has visited and worked in Thailand on an on-off basis for the past eight years but says she is looking to make the country her permanent home this year. She discovered Bua Bann when driving through a Thai village during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The elephant trade took a nosedive during the pandemic and many owners had to take the animals back to their villages as tourists were locked out from visiting the country. Elephant abuse is rife in Thailand as they are used for tourists to ride on and are exploited for social media posts.
Bua Bann was chained up and confined to a three metre by three metre concrete space when Katie discovered her. She could be seen swaying side to side which is a sign that elephants are stressed.
Katie was able to convince the owner to allow her to take the elephant to HEH as she was malnourished and he was unable to feed her properly. There, the large mammal was allowed to roam free and graze on the land.
But now that the tourism industry is getting back into full swing, HEH are desperate to try to secure enough funds to allow them to pay up a contract to the owner. At the moment they are terrified that the elephant could be taken away and forced to work for those visiting the country.
Katie, from Southside, said: “I got involved with HEH after meeting the owner whilst I was travelling in northern Thailand. I’d done volunteering with elephants before and so they invited me to come and help their small family run sanctuary.
“They don’t get any government help and do everything themselves, the mum's the chef, his sister the accountant and I help out with the social media and advertising side of things. When I first visited they had two elephants but now we have four including Bua Bann.
“I am a teacher in the UK but I’m planning on moving out to Thailand to work for HEH permanently. Bua Bann comes from such a difficult but sadly all too common background.
“She has been at a riding camp for years where people will sit on her to ride around or get pictures on. When covid hit the elephant camps shut down as they were only surviving off of tourists.
“A lot of owners took the elephants back to their local village which is what happened to Bua Bann. I remember driving through this village and you could see this elephant chained across the fields outside a house.
“She was only living on a three metre by three metre concrete pad and was hugely underweight. Elephants need a lot of food and the owner couldn't afford to feed her.
“When they are stressed they rock and sway - you would see her doing this day after day in this one spot. I would phone my mum and tell her about this elephant and we would try to find a way to save her.
“We figured out who she belonged to and we tried to convince him to let her come to HEH but he was hoping covid wouldn't last long. Unfortunately in Thailand elephants are the property of families and this can be their main source of income so they rent them for a fee each month.
“As time went on he realised he couldn’t look after her so we offered to take her into our massive sanctuary space and allow her to graze - it was a win, win for everyone. After being with us for six to seven months we asked if he would consider selling her to us and we were able to agree instalments that would not allow for him to go off and buy another elephant to put into the tourism industry but also so that he was properly compensated.”
This leaves HEH, Katie and her mum to raise £26,000 or £250 a month to be able to meet the payments to keep the elephant in their care. They say that so long as they produce these payments then Bua Bann will remain their property and she cannot be taken back and exploited in the tourism industry.
Katie added that Bua Bann is a “sweet elephant” considering the abuse she has suffered at the hands of humans. She is very food orientated and likes to socialise more with people rather than fellow elephants who she can be quite shy with.
She says everyone at HEH is extremely grateful for any financial support that people are able to offer at this difficult time. She said: “Bua Bann has worked hard for humans and now it is time for us to work so hard for her.
“She deserves the life she can have at HEH and she should not be an animal that is there for tourists to ride and have pictures taken on.”
If you would like to support the GoFundMe, you can do so here.
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