Elephant rescue: Welcome to Daorueng!

When the paths of two individuals of two different species cross….

Imagine this: You are an elephant working in the tourism industry for over 30 years, you have a bad leg, you are getting old and tired. Your owner however needs you for his income, his livelihood. Under normal circumstances you will work until you drop, or in other words, you will have to work until you die.

Do you believe in angels?

Now what happens if one day a French lady, just another tourist just like hundreds of other ones that visit the camp every day, gets to the elephant camp and somehow has a special interest in just you? She comes and see you, gets a closer look, and feels a lot of sympathy towards you. Love at first sight? A special bond? Feeling ashamed to be a human being, seeing the suffering of chained up working elephants?

Whatever the feeling that many others might as well have during the visit to an elephant camp, most people forget most of these feelings and impressions once they are back home and their normal lives go on.

But not everyone forgets; This angel for elephants returns home, but keeps in contact with a friend that works in Thailand and can’t put her feeligns to rest. Would it be possible to rescue exactly this elephant, Dao Rueng, from her ordeal and would there be a better place for her to spend the rest of her life? How does it work in a country with no animal welfare laws at all, where animals are not protected against exploitation and/or torture?

Luckily for Daorueng the friend in Thailand was a fighter determined to find out more about helping Daorueng and the French angel promised to help as much as she could. Would a miracle for Daorueng be possible?

Here we are today; Daorueng has arrived after weeks of negotiations, trips to the elephant park, and lots of paperwork and a long trip on a truck! She is settling in at her new home and will meet many new friends in a spacious and natural surrounding!

Daorueng will never have to work another minute of her life. This rescue will not change the world we live in, but it has changed the whole world for Daorueng! On behalf of Daorueng and everyone at WFFT; Thank you Lise and Chantal!