Prevention is better than cure

Dear Sir,

Oh dear, here we go again, another lame excuse to explain away yet another death caused by a bull elephant. I was accused by Dr. Iain of writing a “knee-jerk” letter after the Nong Nooch death, when all I was trying to point out was the perils of using male elephants in close proximity to humans. By no means do I claim to be an “expert” but after handling and training elephants for 15 years, including 10 years managing Europe’s best Asian elephant breeding facility at the Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in the UK and a 6 month spell with our own Phairat Chaiyakham at the Pattaya Elephant Village (down Siam Country Club road) back in 1990, I think I qualify to give an informed opinion.

The excuse this time is the revelation that the Suay people of Surin drink “lao khao” in the evenings and sometimes in the mornings, implying their judgement is impaired and therefore accidents happen. Well excuse me but mahouts have been doing this same thing in the evenings and sometimes in the mornings for generations. What, they’re going to spend their evenings banging out e-mail to the relatives up-country or sit around the campfire discussing exchange rates? I have sat with these fantastic people for many evenings, the usual discussion (over a glass of lao khao) being the plight of the domestic Thai elephant and it’s attendant mahout and family now that the “old way” of life has gone forever. Also don’t write back and tell me “but the report said the elephant was mistreated and had a good memory”... how the heck do people think elephants have been trained to work without pain (mostly mental) and deprivation anyway? Khun Wutisak Ruemkichakarn (Pattaya Deputy Mayor) and Khun Pavena Hongsakula (Minister for Tourism, Office of the Prime Minister) please, what you have to understand is that up until the ban on teak and other endangered species of hardwood harvesting in Thailand the vast majority of bull elephants (female as well, but the topic here is concentrating on the bull, for specific reasons) were engaged in extremely strenuous daily work where not only their muscles but their minds too were kept constantly occupied.

There is absolutely no way that performing in a 45 minute show 2 or 3 times a day is anywhere near the physical and mental stimulation these powerful and intelligent animals need.

Using that old adage “prevention is better than cure” there needs to be a long term programme administered by the relevant Thai governmental departments (possibly aided by outside conservation organizations) to prevent there being far too many male elephants irresponsibly kept in contact with any human being who does not have reason to be near that animal.

A start would be to have an up to date census of all domesticated elephants in Thailand and to determine if these animals and their attendant mahout families are employed in the public entertainment field, or are transient border crossers, logging illegally and looking for work with any of the Kingdom’s neighbours. Once the number, age and sex ratio of these domestic elephants is known and the enormity of the problem becomes clear it can be addressed, say starting with registration and numbering (tattooing). This is not a new concept and believe me there are enough professional conservation organizations, both Thai and Western in this country who are concerned with this type of logistics problem... all that needs doing initially is to listen to them, seriously.

The short-term “cure” part of the problem is easy: keep the bull elephants away from the public (and in this I include the late Oun Intsanran... he was not the animals current mahout, therefore there was no reason for allowing him to be in that animals vicinity). Bull elephants periodically go through a phenomenon known as “musth”... I shall not elaborate on this because those people in the know, know, and those who don’t wouldn’t understand within the limited space available in this letter. Let it be enough that if you see an elephant weeping an oily secretion from the temporal gland (midway between eye and ear) and constantly dribbling urine, put as much distance between you and that beast as possible! Now that Thailand has a huge surplus of ex-working elephants employed in shows, there should be adhered to rules and regulations governing what is, and what is not acceptable, and one is that if a male elephant is to be used in any way to entertain or educate the public (not just tourists) the park or zoo or farm owner has to shoulder the responsibility to ensure the public is in no way endangered by that animal. The Tourist Authority of Thailand should use the authority it has to inspect each and every commercial enterprise that uses elephants and then have the courage of it’s convictions to either sanction, fine or close the place. Yeah, right! By the way, the metal barriers at Nong Nooch are laughable and will not prevent further tragedy should a bull get it into it’s mind to attack.

Anyway, that’s my opinion, I’m entitled to it and would love to argue the toss over it (and a cold beer, not lao khao these days!) with any who disagree... I can be found every night in either of the two bars in Pattayaland Soi 1 with the hot pink neon signs!

Sincerely’

“Spicy” Martin

Pattaya.

PS. Thank you for the plug and honourable mention in “Nightmarch” last week!

Dear Editor

In a recent letter to the Pattaya Mail, Mr K Ouimet states as a retired American serviceman he would have gone to war to “protect” a smaller nation. Sorry, Mr Ouimet, but a lot of small nations do not share your views. I’m not talking about Yugoslavia or Beirut or even Cambodia, Laos or Vietnam but many of the nations in the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico. Over the past 200 years many of these nations have been attacked by the US military up to 150 times, Cuba alone 6 times since 1898. Part of a quote from Major General Smedley Butler USMC,”I spent 33 years in active duty in the Marine Corps. During that period I spent most of my time being a high class muscle man for Big Business, Wall St and for the bankers. I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests. I helped make Cuba and Haiti a decent place for National City Bank. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers. I brought Light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests. I helped make Honduras “right” for American fruit interests and I helped see to it that Standard Oil went unmolested in China”. Thus, it’s easy to see why a lot of small nations may say thanks but no thanks to American military help.

Uncle Mike