Dry Skin and Starving - The Rescue of Thong Poon
Thong Poon, (Abundance of Gold) is thought to be in her late sixties. Despite her advancing age and failing health, she was working in a small tourist camp in Pattaya, South Thailand, when we found her. She was forced to work eight - sometimes, ten hours a day, constantly weighed down and struggling to walk. Ropes holding the bench on her back in place, dug in to her skin so deeply, she was left with blood filled cracks all over her body.
When we first met Thong Poon, we were shocked at her condition. We couldn’t believe that this petite, old elephant was physically able to carry the weight of tourists on her back, day in, day out. Her skin was dry and cracked, she was covered in dry blood, particularly on her cheek and hip bones. Thong Poon was underweight and it didn’t take us long to figure out why - with only one remaining molar tooth, that was abnormally protruding from the middle of her mouth, it was obvious she was struggling to eat enough to sustain herself. Thong Poon was starving.
Camp life is hard for the elephants and their owners/mahouts. They rent their elephants to the camps, with the hopes of making a modest living. The mahouts are often not paid a salary by the camp owner, they are not provided with accommodation and they have to pay for all the elephant’s food and upkeep themselves. This often results with the mahouts having no other choice but to scavenge around for leftovers. Thong Poon, like so many other elephants in her position, existed on a diet of discarded pineapple heads. There is little nutritional value in pineapple heads and the leaves are extremely tough and hard for elderly elephants to grind down and digest.
Thong Poon’s living conditions were some of the worst we have ever seen. It was a building site with trucks and tractors parked everywhere. There were mountains of trash and elephant dung and we all agreed it was unacceptable for any living being to live in such a poor and unsanitary environment.
Thong Poon’s owner adored her and it was breaking his heart to see her suffering. A single parent, he also had been finding things hard and when he discovered his only daughter was pregnant, he knew it was time for him and Thong Poon to finally say good riddance to camp life and retire.
When Thong Poon’s owner reached out to us, we knew we had to help them. We enlisted the support of our good friends at Planting Peace, a non for profit based in The US, who have helped us successfully save other elephants in the past. Together, Planting Peace and BLES supporters raised the funds needed to save Thong Poon in record breaking time and we were able to remove her from that camp just a few days later!
The owner had explained to us that Thong Poon had a fear of trucks. The BLES Team prepared the Green Machine (our transportation truck), with a huge water tank and a variety of soft, juicy fruits, to tempt her on to the truck and it worked beautifully! Thong Poon walked on to the truck with so much enthusiasm it made her owner cry tears of relief!
Thong Poon had quite the fan club at the camp and there were at least thirty people who had gathered to wave her off. As we all watched Thong Poon walk on to the truck with minimal persuasion, there were tears of joy and a chorus of comments suggesting that Thong Poon knew she was about to be reborn.
The ride to BLES from Pattaya was long, but easy. We made regular stops to refill her water tank and it was so lovely to watch her splashing herself (and the mahouts) down throughout the drive. Knowing that she hadn’t been allowed to dust, bath, splash or play for so many years, made it that extra bit special and I don’t mind admitting that tears rolled down my face as I watched her throw water everywhere.
We finally arrived at BLES just before midnight. Even though the drive had been uneventful, we were all exhausted!
Thong Poon walked off the truck and onto our loading bay as easily as she had walked on to it and she wasted no time devouring her welcome fruit feast! She chose to eat all the sweet bananas first - picking them up one by one!
Since her arrival, Thong Poon has proved to be extremely popular with all our other rescued elephants. She has formed a strong bond with Mare Ladee and Dok Lak and also Poon Sab. She is an absolute joy to watch and we are all hopelessly in love with her!
We can not emphasize enough how grateful we are to every single person who played a pro active part in Thong Poon’s rescue and we are excited to share regular updates on her recovery journey with you all via our social media platforms.
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