[TH] Thailand offers Bangkok elephants for adoption

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Thailand offers Bangkok elephants for adoption

 

By MICHAEL CASEY – 35 minutes ago

 

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Elephants idling outside discos or lumbering

through traffic have been part of Bangkok's colorful nightlife for nearly

two decades. Now authorities want to send them back to the jungle.

 

Thai officials say they have come up with an innovative solution: offering

the pachyderms for adoption.

 

Several groups have already paid the estimated 500,000 baht ($14,664) to buy

an elephant and relocate it to a reserve in the countryside.

 

Half of the city's 200 elephants have been relocated since the program began

in March, and Bangkok Governor Sukhumphan Boriphat vowed in a glitzy press

conference Friday that the rest would be out within a year.

 

" Roaming elephants can cause accidents, especially at night, and even more

importantly are harmful to themselves, " Sukhumphan said at a ceremony that

featured a marching band, a Thai film actress and several heavyset women who

were recent participants in a Miss Jumbo beauty contest.

 

" It's important that we get elephants out of Bangkok as quickly as

possible, " the governor said.

 

Elephants first arrived in Bangkok in the late 1980s after a logging ban

made them redundant in forestry work. Since then, they have been trafficked

into the city from rural Thailand and even neighboring Myanmar by

politically connected gangs who count on corrupt government officials to

look the other way.

 

The elephants' handlers persuade tourists to buy the animals sugar cane and

other snacks or use the elephants to promote the sale of ivory trinkets.

Many of the animals get hurt when they collide with cars or step into drains

or potholes.

 

The city has tried repeatedly to evict the animals — at one point bringing

in trucks to cart them away — only to have the plans undermined by lax

enforcement.

 

This time, the campaign includes putting microchips in the elephants so

officials can track their whereabouts, and trying to convince foundations to

buy and relocate them.

 

Once in their new homes, the elephants will be trained to search the forest

for their food.

 

Elephant owners can use the money to get into a new business, and those who

refuse reasonable offers will be fined, city officials said.

 

" They are icons of our country, " said Chookiat Prathipasen, deputy secretary

general of the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation, which has adopted 63

elephants and plans to take a total of 81. " They should not be treated as

pets. They should be treated nearly like humans. "

 

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