The Elephants of Thailand Need our Help More than Ever

The month of August goes down in WFFT’s history as the month we have given refuge to more elephants than ever before. The WFFT Herd grew by 4 elephants; we now care for 29 elephants along with 700+ other rescued animals.

The newest member of the herd arrived at 5AM this morning after a very long journey from Southern Thailand. Her name is Boon Ma, she is an astonishing 71 years old. Having spent most of her life being used as a logging elephant, she spent the last 10 years working in tourism all over Southern Thailand, like many of Thailand’s 3000+ captive elephants, when the covid crisis hit she no longer had a use in tourism. Boon Ma’s mahout who has known her all his life, has moved to WFFT to work with us and to continue to care for her. No more rides, no more chains, her new life begins now.

Thailand’s elephants need our help more than ever before. More than ever before we need your help to help them. The Covid-19 crisis means so many elephants and their owners can no longer make a living to feed themselves never mind make a profit. Calls for help are currently a daily occurrence. Just this morning we heard reports of a young calf whose mother had died who needs rescuing from a camp in northern Thailand. We literally cannot continue to bring in more elephants without funds to care for them, pay animal caretaker salaries, buy land and build more enclosures.

Direct donations large or small are needed visit https://www.wfft.org/donate/.

To sponsor the care of Boon Ma or one of our other elephants visit https://covidsupport.wfft.org/sponsorships/asian-elephants/.

Thank to all those kind people that have donated towards rescuing these elephants and a special thank you to Joan and Co. in Australia for the continued support.