Granny Gaew
Gorgeous Granny Gaew (‘Orange Jasmine’) is a tiny and very fuzzy little old lady!
Gorgeous Granny Gaew is thought to be in her mid to late sixties and we were contacted directly by her owner, who desperately needed our help.
Gaew , together with her best friend, Naam Chok, was forced to beg for food at a run down zoo in the north of Thailand. The two of them stood from sunrise, to sunset, on a slab of concrete, chained down and if nobody purchased a basket of fruit to feed to them - they went without.
To put it another way, these two sweet girls were being starved - all in the name of tourism.
For some unbeknown reason, the zoo insisted on playing pop music at maximum volume, which meant it blasted through the speaker system throughout the zoo. Gaew had no escape and when she wasn’t being made to do tricks for food, she had to ferry tourists around on a bench tightly strapped to her old and frail body. The physical pain she must have endured each day is unthinkable. The only comfort she had in this hellhole, was the company of her best friend, Naam Chok.
The owner, who was renting Gaew and Naam Chok out to the zoo, needed help. His mother (the original owner), had suddenly passed away, which left him, as the eldest, facing with huge debts and two elephants he had no use for. A few weeks prior to this his daughter had died and then one week after the death of his mother, his younger brother died in his sleep.
We sympathised with the owner and wanted to help him in some way. He explained that the elephants had always belonged to his mother and that she had rented them out to various camps around the country, always insisting that they stay together.
We agreed to provide both Gaew and Naam Chok with a forever home and got to work raising the funds needed to make that happen.
We reached out to our friends at Planting Peace, who agreed to support us and together we were able to secure the funds needed to rescue both of the girls in just a couple of days - once again proving that BLES has the BEST supporters!
When we went to collect the girls, they were understandably eager to exit that zoo and walked onto the transportation truck with ease.
Our journey home to BLES, took a total of seven hours and Gaew and Naam Chok enjoyed being fed treats throughout the entire journey! Our mahouts sat in the truck with them and fed them sweet bananas, corn, chunks of jackfruit and sticks of sugarcane.
Once we arrived at BLES, Gaew and Naam Chok were eager to get off the truck. Maybe they could smell the amazing fruit feast that the BLES Team had lovingly prepared for them?
Gaew and Naam Chok devoured their welcome fruit feast in record breaking time! It was as if they couldn’t believe their luck. It was so deeply heartwarming watching them both as they hoovered up every last bit of fruit - and then walk around as if they were were searching for more!
Gaew and Naam Chok arrived at BLES on the 29th September 2025.
Gaew had badly infected stab wounds on her ankle and face, as well as pressure wounds on her cheeks and needed to be put on a specialised diet as she was dangerously underweight.
We are thrilled to share that Gaew is now thriving and has gained all of the weight that she needed to and is maintaining a healthy overall weight.
Her wounds have healed completely and she has enjoyed many interactions with our other rescued elephants. Gaew has a strong bond with her mahout, Boo Teb and we are so proud of the transformation Gaew has gone through.
Thank you so much to each and every person who contributed towards the rescue of Gaew. She is a living example of what we can do for all of the other elephants trapped in tourism. If Gaew can turn her life around, then so can they if given the chance.
Adopt Dok Gaew