From Reuters:
“Streaming to survive:
Thailand's out-of-work elephants in crisis”
(Elephant owner Siriporn Sapmak,
23, poses while holding her gear used for social media live-streaming outside
her house, at Ba Ta Klang village in Surin, Thailand April 6, 2022.)
In the northeastern village of
Ban Ta Klang in Thailand, Siriporn Sapmak starts her day by doing a livestream
of her two elephants on social media to raise money to survive. The 23-year
old, who has been taking care of elephants since she was in school, points her
phone to the animals as she feeds them bananas and they walk around the back of
her family home. Siriporn says she can raise about 1,000 baht ($27.46) of
donations from several hours of livestreaming on TikTok and YouTube but that is
only enough to feed her two elephants for one day. It is a new - and insecure -
source of income for the family, which before the pandemic earned money by
doing elephant shows in the Thai city of Pattaya. They top up their earnings by
selling fruit.
(Baby elephant Pangmaemae
Plainamo, along with her mother and a mahout, are live-streamed on social media
at Ba Ta Klang village in Surin, Thailand April 8, 2022. Live-streaming is a
new - and insecure - source of income for elephant owners, who previously
relied on tourism to earn a wage.)
Like thousands of other elephant
owners around the country, the Sapmak family had to return to their home
village as the pandemic decimated elephant camps and foreign tourism ground to
a virtual halt. Only 400,000 foreign tourists arrived in Thailand last year
compared with nearly 40 million in 2019. Some days, Siriporn doesn't receive
any donations and her elephants are underfed. "We are hoping for tourists
to (return). If they come back, we might not be doing these livestreams
anymore," she said. "If we get to go back to work, we get a (stable)
income to buy grass for elephants to eat."
Edwin Wiek, founder of Wildlife
Friends Foundation Thailand, estimates that at least a thousand elephants in
Thailand would have no "proper income" until more tourists return. Thailand
has about 3,200 to 4,000 captive elephants, according to official agencies, and
about 3,500 in the wild. Wiek said the Livestock Development Department needs
to find "some kind" of budget to support these elephants. "Otherwise,
it's going to be difficult to keep them alive I think for most families,"
he said.
"LIKE FAMILY"
(Baby elephant Pangmaemae
Plainamo takes a bath at Ba Ta Klang village in Surin, Thailand April 8, 2022.
Thailand has about 3,200 to 4,000 captive elephants, according to official
agencies, and about 3,500 in the wild.)
The families in Ban Ta Klang, the
epicentre of Thailand's elephant business located in Surin province, have cared
for elephants for generations and have a close connection to them. Elephant
shows and rides have long been popular with tourists, especially the Chinese,
while animal rights groups' criticism of how elephants are handled there has
given rise to tourism in sanctuaries. "We are bound together, like family
members," Siriporn’s mother Pensri Sapmak, 60, said. "Without the
elephants, we don’t know what our future will look like. We have today thanks
to them."
The government has sent 500,000
kilograms of grass across multiple provinces since 2020 to help feed the
elephants, according to the Livestock Development Department, which oversees
captive elephants. Elephants, Thailand's national animal, eat 150 kg to 200 kg
each day, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society. Siriporn and her
mother, however, said they have not yet received any government support. "This
is a big national issue," said Livestock Development Department
Director-General Sorawit Thanito. He said the government plans to assist
elephants and their caretakers and that "measures along with a budget will
be proposed to cabinet," without giving a time frame. While the government
is expecting 10 million foreign tourists this year, some say this may not be
enough to lure elephant owners back to top tourist destinations, given the
costs involved. Chinese tourists, the mainstay of elephant shows, have also yet
to return amid COVID-19 lockdowns at home. "Who has the money right now to
arrange a truck... and how much security (do) they have that they are really
going to have business again when they go back?," said Wiek. He expected
more elephants to be born in captivity over the next year, exacerbating the
pressures on their owners. "Some days we make some money, some days none,
meaning there's going to be less food on the table"," said Pensri. "I
don't see a light at the end of the tunnel."
^ This is extremely sad for both
the elephants and for the people who care for them. More really needs to be
done to make sure they all have the food they need to survive. ^
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