Elephant rescue and treatment program

The mobile wildlife rescue team has started a new program to treat elephants around Thailand on the street and at tourist elephant camps on a frequent bases. Although WFFT in principal does not agree with the use of elephants in tourism we do feel that the welfare of these elephants in camps is served by a decent treatment and medical care were possible. From April 2014 onwards we will make monthly visits to several camps and help the elephants kept there. We already found on our first days earlier last week that lots of elephants are in need of nail care, de-worming, vitamine supplements and specialist eye-care. We are therefor planning a joint project with one of the most prestigious universities in Thailand on animal ophthalmology, to safe some eyes that are still treatable. We were shocked to find 5 elephants with serious eye problems, in 3 cases one blind eye and the second eye worsening rapidly. Elephant owners usually lack the funds to find money for this treatment, so we are now looking in to finding sponsors for surgery.

Last year WFFT was able to successfully treat a gibbon that has been blind for 12 years.