Thailand, which is a mesmerizingly beautiful travel destination offering unforgettable eco-adventures, exotic beaches and a wide range of cultures, is also known for its elephant slavery. From fewer than 50,000 Asian elephants left in the wild, sadly 3,000 to 4,000 are held in chains here.
Planting Peace is a nonprofit humanitarian organization which was founded back in 2004 by American Aaron Jackson and Haitian John Louis Dieubon for the purpose of ‘spreading peace in a hurting world’.
The first elephant the organization rescued from chains was named Mae. She was 35 years old and had been enslaved her whole life in the logging industry in Laos.
“She was enslaved as a riding elephant. Her feet were in chains for roughly 30 years before Planting Peace took them off for good,” Aaron shared on his Facebook profile at the time.
Yet, probably the most viral video was about an elephant called Mare Noi who had spent the last 41 years of her life in chains. The short clip shows her taking her first steps to freedom.
“You are looking at the newest free elephant in the world. This is her first time walking free,” Aaron said in the clip and explained that she was a logging and breeding elephant before the rescue.
Image credits: Aaron Jackson
Image credits: Aaron Jackson
Their other, no less touching story was about an elephant named Jong. She was tied to a tree starving to death at an abandoned elephant riding camp that went out of business because of Covid.
“Elephants won’t eat where they use the bathroom, so being chained to a tree with no one moving her is why she is 50 percent underweight,” Aaron explained. “You can not only clearly see her ribs but her head is also sinking in due to being underweight. On top of it all, she is blind in her right eye. She was hit in the eye with a metal chain by her ‘caretaker’ while he was abusing her,” he added.
Thanks to the generous donor who gave Planting Peace the funds to buy her freedom, now the elephant is safe after being in chains for 50 years.
Image credits: Aaron Jackson