i was honored to ride an elephant twice when i was in thailand.

the first time was in a tourist elephant camp about an hour north of chiang mai. the place was beautiful, the animals were apparently very happy -- they "worked" giving rides (for the big ones) and doing stuff like playing soccer and painting stuff (the smaller ones) for a few hours in the mid-day, then the park closed and they had free range roaming space.

i honestly cannot imagine what could be happening behind the scenes to make people protest. they were well-fed, given lots of attention, and had their social systems intact.

then i rode once up in pai at one of the family places. she was a big old elephant and was pretty hilarious, since she just did what she wanted, really.. at one point, she turned off the steep and narrow path to head directly downhill toward the creek for a patch of bamboo... we were hanging there until she had her fill. she was the same age as me, it was pretty cool.

that family supported itself with their elephant, and though i suspect she did more heavy work on occasion than many elephants now, it seemed like a good scenario, or at least as good as possible.

from what i've seen, the biggest problem is elephants who are in the city and used to lure tourists. the traffic, the pollution, the cement streets, the weird energy, these cannot be good for such a powerful and noble animal as an elephant. that makes me sad.