When I heard about the recent raids by the Thai government on both The Elephant Nature Park and Wildlife Friends Foundation, I was quite upset. I hate imagining such beautiful and calm places, so full of joy, being disrupted by government officials for the entire day:
“On Wednesday 8 February approximately 100 government people descended on The Elephant Nature Park. They claimed they had an anonymous phone call alleging that the park was hiding some 70 wild elephants. They disrupted the park from early morning till evening, some 13 hours. They found nothing but fully documented elephants living in sanctuary. Some were old, some sick, some wounded but all were properly documented and well cared for. It’s public knowledge that there are 35 elephants at ENP. ENP’s attorney was on hand and presented the proper documentation.”
A few days later the same raid went down at Wildlife Friends Foundation and they even found a reason to ARREST the president of WFFT! These sanctuaries are two of the only places in Thailand that elephants are actually rescued at, the only places where they can live in peace without fear of abuse and cared for with love. They also speak out against animal cruelty and tell us what is REALLY going on in Thailand with domesticated elephants. If you want to know more about the situation for elephants in Thailand, read our earlier blog post here. I also recommend reading the article from Asian Elephant Stories as they delve deeper into why this is happening.
What I want to do is put out the necessary info so action can be taken immediately.
This is what we can do right now:
Sign the Petition. It is currently at about 8,000 signatures and their goal is 10,00, let’s make it 50,000 signatures.
The recent raids were orchestrated by National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (DNP) This is a list of their contact emails: http://www.dnp.go.th/wpcdnpe.htm
More emails of Department of National Parks and sample letter you can copy and paste: http://www.facebook.com/notes/maud-janssen/mail-and-adresses-to-deparment-of-national-parks/361857043837992
Post on the US Embassy Bangkok and US Consulate Chiang Mai FB Pages:
http://www.facebook.com/usembassybkk?sk=wall
http://www.facebook.com/chiangmai.usconsulate
More helpful links:
Elephant Nature Park and ENP Facebook
Wildlife Friends of Thailand and WFFT Facebook
Post on their walls and show your support. Also, post the petition link anywhere you can: FB, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinstrest, blog about it and/or mail it to friends and family. Here is the petition link one more time:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/urgent-plea-for-rescued-thai-wildlife/
The more emails we send, the clearer the message will be to Thai officials that potential tourists don’t want to visit places of animal cruelty and we support what places like ENP and WFFT are doing. Of course, we can also go there and help in person. Our willingness to physically be there and volunteer speaks volumes. And of course, if you need help or don’t know where to start planning a trip to Thailand, email us: info@loveinfinitely.org and we will help down to the last detail.
In the meantime, let’s get these emails out and show our support for elephants.
♥∞
~B
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