I Did the Volunteering Tour with Elephants in Discover Thailand

Thailand was fun but in all honesty the elephant experience was why I signed up in the first place. The so called "Sanctuary" was not at all like I had hoped for. Don't get me wrong it was nice to touch an elephant and rub mud on them but the way these animals truly live behind the scenes was unfortunate to see firsthand to say the least. The four elephants residing at Hug "Sanctuary" were all tied to trees most the time when visitors were not on the agenda. Not to mention they ALL had chain collars! Mae Ban even broke off her chain when she was tied to the tree as we were cleaning up around her! Their enclosure was less than an acre when the vicinity itself had over 20 acres of cornfield. We passed more elephant friendly sanctuaries along the same mountain, ones with big open enclosures where the elephants roamed freely without collars. I witnessed the mahouts kicking and slapping our elephants to get them to obey commands. All in all what I expected to be a heart-warming experience turned into a heart-wrenching one. In which it left me wondering why I had bothered to support a place like this in the first place. I guess you truly don't know until you get there because the company makes it look so "Ethical" on the famous World Wide Web. I wrote a comment on BAMBOOs Instagram post on February 14th about my experience and they decided to delete it which I Find even more SHADY. Don't support this elephant experience and do research for REAL SANCTUARIES in Thailand.