Elephants Chained And Starved To D.e.a.t.h In Thailand When Tourism Collapses Under CO.VID-19 Lockdown

Over 1,000 elephants in Thailand are facing severe starvation as the country’s tourism industry takes a big hit due to the CO.VID-19 outbreak, according to conservationists.

Thailand now has around 4,000 elephants living in captivity and no tourists mean caretakers have no way to afford to feed the poor animals, which can eat up to 200 kg of food per day.

Last week, Thailand reported 127 new cases of CO.VID-19, pushing the country’s total to 1.651.

According to Lek Chailert, the Save Elephant Foundation’s founder, if they receive no support, the elephants, some are even pregnant, may starve to d.e.a.t.h or be put on the streets to beg for humans’ mercy.

If they escape the faith of d.e.a.t.h, some elephants might be sold to zoos to spend the rest of their lives inside cages. Worse, they can be forced back to the illegal logging business, which values the great strength of the animals.

Even in the best of time, it is hard keeping elephants well-fed and happy, but it is the dry season in Thailand and the outbreak has made the situation even worse.

According to Kerri McCrea, manager of the Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary in Northern Thailand, villagers of nearby villages have brought around 70 elephants to the sanctuary as they no longer receive income from tourists. She said her priority was to feed the animals but there was not enough forest left to feed them.

McCrae now has five elephants in the sanctuary and she has to drive for three hours each day to collect corn stalks and grasses for them. She said local caretakers were forced to do the same.

Thailand, which relies heavily on tourism, has no other way but to close its border as the country is in lockdown to stop the spread of CO.VID-19.

Kerri McCrae said when elephants were happy, they would swing their tails, flap their ears, or bathe in mud. However, as they are now hungry, they no longer display these behaviors.

She said the worst scenario was owners having to choose between the elephants and themselves.

The heart-breaking picture you see is of Tikiiri, a 70-year-old elephant in Sri Lanka. She was forced to parade for kilometers in a Buddhist festival before collapsed and succumbed to starvation and exhaustion.

The image of her lying on the ground d.y.i.n.g with bones visible through her flesh shook the whole world when it surfaced last year. That same ill fate is looming in her kind in Thailand.

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