Pattaya Elephant village

We have booked our ship's excursion to Pattaya Elephant village. I am now a bit worried whether it is cruel or not as I have recently read that places that offer elephant rides treat the elephants badly. It is advertised as a 'sanctuary' but I wonder if anyone has experience of this place and how the animals are treated. Thanks.

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I have no knowledge of Pattaya, or indeed Thailand, but we are going to Sri Lanka next week and have been looking into reports about elephant sanctuary/orphanages. The feed back I have had, both from questions and other reading, is that it is definitely not recommended to ride Elephants, from this perspective. The training of the elephants does need some debatable methods and even when not rode, a number of animals are reputed to be chained. The general opinion is to try to see them free in National Parks. We are not avid on animal rights etc., but have decided it best to avoid those places altogether, even though some seem to have a better reputation than others (there is a sanctuary which has stopped elephant riding altogether). There is a lot else to do/see in our 3 weeks in Sri Lanka so that is not an issue for us.

A question on this topic here is not likely top get much response (if at all) from anyone with detailed knowledge of a specific sanctuary in Thailand, so I suggest you pose your question on the Trip Advisor forum covering this area if you really want to go there. There will likely be reviews of it on TA as well, which will give you an idea of how people felt after their visit.

One of the most commonly visited places with captive elephants in Sri Lanka, (Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage), is used by cruise companies for excursions, yet that does not appear to be the best place in that area. The animals are bred there and there is no intention to release them into the wild.

We are hoping princess will do a tour to the proper elephant sanctuary just out of Phuket. Sadly at the moment the one they offer a trip to, has terribly cruel and shocking feedback. So I wouldn't consider going !

I'm shocked princess have even offered this place

We went to an elephant place on Phuket and I really wish we hadn't. The baby elephants were chained and made to do tricks and there were also monkey shows. We were appalled and regretted going. Other people seemed to think it was all ok.

We went to the Tiger Zoo, which is not too far from Pattaya. They also have Elephant rides there. The jury is still out, as the Elephants seemed to be ok, but many of the Tigers seemed to have open wounds. I think these wounds were probably from fighting, and not mishandling, but we really aren't sure.. Also, they have the baby Tiger and Gator holding picture taking there. We are animal lovers, and hate to see any mistreatment. Later in the day, my husband and I walked back to where they take the pictures and suddenly one Tiger escaped and grabbed my husbands leg as if to say, "SAVE ME". What really bothered us is that once they were able to free the Tiger from my husbands leg, they dragged it by it's tail, and put it into a woven container and put the cover on. We felt that was definitely abuse. By the way, Pattaya is an interesting place if you are a single man.

Our decision has been made for us as RC have cancelled the excursion, refunded our fee and removed it from their website. They haven't said why but I reckon it's on moral grounds 😐

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Our decision has been made for us as RC have cancelled the excursion, refunded our fee and removed it from their website. They haven't said why but I reckon it's on moral grounds 😐

 

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Good... I wish princess would look at the actual ethical one that opened last year.

I so want to experience this, but I won't pay for animals to be abused 😣

My friends who went to the tiger temple felt they were drugged to keep behaving and not hurting humans etc. Poor things 😣

Good... I wish princess would look at the actual ethical one that opened last year.

I so want to experience this, but I won't pay for animals to be abused 😣

My friends who went to the tiger temple felt they were drugged to keep behaving and not hurting humans etc. Poor things 😣

That's terrible! And good for you for not taking part. Too bad everyone else won't follow and this wouldn't happen to the poor animals. I have had to give up the notion of an elephant experience on my upcoming trip also. I want to snuggle them all so much... but not when it comes at a price to these amazing animals.

That's terrible! And good for you for not taking part. Too bad everyone else won't follow and this wouldn't happen to the poor animals. I have had to give up the notion of an elephant experience on my upcoming trip also. I want to snuggle them all so much... but not when it comes at a price to these amazing animals.

;p

Google phuket elephant sanctury.... it's amazing and genuine. I follow them on facebook and we will do our own tour to them.at our stop at Phuket.