Hi ! I'm French and I have to do an oral presentation for my english lesson. This one is on the thai elephants' maltreatment. Don't hesitate to correct my text if there are any mistakes. Thank you so much !!
Introduction
Thailand is an amazing country, full of great animals, incredible landscapes, and wonderful people. I had the chance to go there two years ago with my family, and we enjoyed it very much.
However, we discovered a terrible hidden side of this land : the elephant tourism, and these beautiful animals’ maltreatment.
I would like to speak about it because it’s something very important that only few people know.
II. What is it ?
We are in Chiang Mai, an internationally-known city which owes her fame to its abundance of tame elephants.
Here, we can see many elephants walking along the roads, behind and in front of other cars. I’m already hearing you saying how funny this is ! Actually, this is really heartbreaking.
If you truly concentrate on the elephant, you can see it has chains around the neck.
This is the beginning of a long process named the « phajaan ».
While the catch in a wild environment is illegal, baby elephants are captured by ‘mahouts’ from a very early age ( when they are 2 or 3 years old ) and separated from their families which are often killed, in case they try to defend their baby.
After that, trainers have to begin the phajaan. This word means ‘to break up the elephant’ and the process lasts about one week.
It comes from an ancestral belief which says that it’s possible to separate the mind and the body of an animal.
It aims at traumatizing the animal for him to be afraid and obedient to humans, but this is nothing but torture.
III. The phajaan
Elephants are struck and hurt with a kind of stick called a bullhook.
Trainers choose strategic points to hurt the animal : ears, eyes, articulations, head…
They maintain the babies awake all day and all night without food and water, and they even electrocute and choke them.
50 percents of the elephants are killed during this operation. The others often become insane, and therefore they also die.
Well, you’re gonna tell me : ‘What about us? We did nothing !’
But that’s not finished. After that, not only the trainers continue to abuse the animals, but also the tourists participate to the torture.
An elephant can support about 150 kg on its back. Some companies offer elephants rides where elephants support up to 8 passengers.
Counting the 100 kg nacelle, the 160 kg passengers and the trainer who weighs about 60 kg, the animal is holding 320 kg. Do you think that’s fair ?
IV. What can we do then ?
If you absolutely want to see elephants, you can go to different places where maltreated elephants are loved and treated.
It exists many sanctuaries where elephants attend a reintroduction program, like the Boon Lott’s Elephant sanctuary. There are also national parks where you can watch elephants in their natural habitat, like Khao Yai.
Personally, we chose the Chiang Mai Elephant Sanctuary where we have been able to feed these amazing giants, to wash them, and to have a bath with them.
There are many other things to do : petitions to sign, videos to watch, informations to read about, associations to help..
And we all can act.
Sorry. There were a few things I didn't catch in the corrections.
1. The 2nd correction where I wrote "it" should be "its."
2. Also, I change "maltreatment" to "mistreatment," but I should have also changed "maltreated" to "mistreated."
Good luck on your presentation!