Wildlife Friends Foundation, Thailand
voluntourism (n.): a form of tourism where travelers offer a service to a good cause free of charge
In 2019, I had the opportunity to spend about a month in Thailand. After 10 days of traveling through the country, I spent two weeks volunteering at an ethical wildlife sanctuary. I got to take care of elephants and explore the small village surrounding the sanctuary. I want to preface with this, animal tourism is intense and unethical in many senses. If you want an experience with animals when you are traveling, especially with animals I beg you, please do your research. Here you can find an article with some truly ethical sanctuaries to make sure you are not contributing to the harm of elephants.
A little background on why it is important to do research on where to experience elephants in Thailand. Elephants are not domesticated animals like your dog and cat. As wonderful as a pet elephant would be, it is not the same. It is a wild, fierce, and powerful creature. For elephants to be able to be ridden or domesticated for a tourist’s enjoyment they must be broken through a process called phajaan. This is a cruel and aggressive treatment of baby elephants until they are absolutely broken in spirit and will follow commands out of fear. I have linked a video for anyone who wants to learn more but be advised this is a tough watch. I understand the desire of wanting to be near elephants. They are fascinating, intelligent, and kind creatures. Just make sure when you do so you understand the history.
Wildlife Friends Foundation
The place I volunteered at was the Wildlife Friends Foundation. This sanctuary has a wide range of rescued animals that are either being retired at the sanctuary due to inability to be released to the wild or are healing until they can be free. I volunteered specifically with the elephants but was lucky to spend my free time exploring and seeing all the beautiful creatures on the large property. I woke up every day to the gibbons howling and swinging through the trees before heading out to my assignments for the day and seeing which pod of elephants I would be focused on. Just like elephants in the wild travel with their families, families were formed from the beautiful elephants that were rescued here as they got retired and were rescued from a wide range of hard backgrounds. We’d start the day making the elephant’s banana balls, where you mush bananas, nutrients, and pellets together to make a snack to start the elephants day. Here at WFFT, we always make sure feeding the elephants is the first thing we do in the day, even before we ourselves sit down for breakfast.
After we give the elephants their first bits of food for the day, we return for a great breakfast by the kitchen staff. Then you will head out to do your tasks for the day. This could consist of anything from making enrichments for the elephants (think puzzle snacks to engage the elephant’s minds while also getting them their food), heading out to chop down banana trees for the harvest, cleaning enclosures, or walking/cleaning the elephants. There was such a wide range of things that happened every day and getting to know the volunteers and staff made the experience really incredible. There was something so magical about just being around the elephants and seeing how they communicate and engage with each other. At the end of the day, you’d take a huge bucket of fruit and walk with one of the elephants to their nighttime enclosure. Feeling the pure power that existed in the trunks of these elephants as you were walking them was like something I have never experienced. You are so intensely aware that this is a wild animal who is fully in control of the situation. But because they are genuinely so sweet, you feel almost like you’re walking a giant dog. One thing about WFFT, elephants here will never be on chains or ropes. When they come to the sanctuary they are free and will never be chained up again. So having respect for the rules and the animal are necessary for the freedom of the elephant and your own safety.
As the day wrapped up at WFFT, they always had fun activities for the night time that you could sign up for. This could be heading to the nearest town to go to a night market, seeing the bat caves nearby, or any other adventure that was decided for the week. I would so encourage anyone here to go to some of the activities as it really does bring a fun dynamic to the experience, even if you’re tired. While I only spent two weeks here, you would often see volunteers there from anything between one and twelve weeks. WFFT also has volunteer programs where you can work with the other animals on-site, so you will often see volunteers do a mix of the wildlife side and the elephant side.
So, while I cant speak on every sanctuary in Thailand, I can state my experience at WFFT is something that changed my life. I’ll leave you with this. If you want to experience aminals or elephants while on your next trip to thailand, do it thoughtfully. Don’t be a part of the problem. If you think that picture of you riding an elephant is worth it, watch the video of what that elephant had to go through for your Instagram likes and contemplate if you’re willing to have a sweet creature abused for it. I know I wasn’t. Being a traveler means being informed of what you could be contributing to, and advocating for better.
