Ambivalent
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007I feel somewhat conflicted about our excursion to ride elephants in Luang Prabang. The decision to take part in this activity was complex, because of all the negative things that can be associated with the commercial use of animals. I mean, there are some positively atrocious outfits that are cruel to their beasts beyond measures of reason and who make a profit at the extreme cost of a creature’s health or well-being. There are also some commendable operations that rescue animals from what might otherwise be a perilous existence and support the animal by arranging respectful and educational visits from tourists. The thing is, there are many operations that function somewhere between those two extremes and we couldn’t be sure where our tour company fit into that spectrum. In hindsight, I suppose that if we couldn’t be at least ninety nine percent sure of their standards and procedures regarding the treatment of the elephants, we should not have gone. However, what’s done is done, and we went.
This isn’t to say that we had a bad experience, or that we witnessed terrible cruelty; I am ambivalent about it because I am uneducated. I don’t know what it takes to keep an elephant – I don’t know anything about elephants – so I just felt poorly equipped to decide whether we were supporting a local industry which keeps elephants from being killed or supporting a company that works them cruelly. For example, how many wraps of a chain around a foot is necessary to keep a 40 year old male elephant from running loose? Are the seat harnesses uncomfortable for them? How much food does an elephant need and do they get it here? These remain unknowns. I guess I feel like I still don’t know what it was we supported with our $46 and I am uncomfortable with not knowing for sure.
For the record, though, things looked pretty decent when we were there, a camp outside Luang Prabang called All Lao Tours Camp. The place has been in operation for years and was recommended to us by people who had recently participated in a 2-day ‘learn to be a mahout’ program (mahout = elephant trainer) and they said it was great. We were there only for a short time, long enough to climb aboard one of the three elephants working that day and plod around through the jungle for about an hour. The ride was uneventful, rather unexciting – apart from being able to actually touch an elephant for the first time. The most enjoyable part was feeding them bananas when we returned to the camp. (Check the ‘Videos’ section of our blog to see the Marc feeding one of the females.)
All in all, I remain ambivalent. I don’t know if what we did was ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but I don’t think I’ll ever do it again.