When the tourists who rode them disappeared from resort destinations, Thailand’s captive elephants, and their owners, went back to their birth villages, where finding enough food has been a struggle.
SURIN: Lucky was busy munching on some freshly cut grass when she spotted a special treat a tourist was holding out. She dropped her next mouthful of greens and extended her trunk, asking for the banana.
When the tourists who rode them disappeared from resort destinations, Thailand’s captive elephants, and their owners, went back to their birth villages, where finding enough food has been a struggle.
Visitors to the small village of Baan Ta Klang, with perhaps 100 homes, are struck by an astonishing, even unsettling sight: Nearly every house has one or more elephants chained up outside.