Thong Poon
Precious Thong Poon (‘Abundance of Gold’) is a little old lady with a lot of love to give!
Thong Poon, who is thought to be in her late sixties, was working in a small tourist camp in Pattaya, South Thailand, when we found her. She was forced to work eight - ten hours a day, carrying a number of tourists on her back. This must have caused unimaginable pain, not to mention long term damage to her small frame and frail, ageing body.
When we first met Thong Poon, we were shocked at her condition. Her skin was so dry, you could see deep cracks that we bloody and dirty, on her cheek and hip bones. Thong Poon was also underweight and we quickly figured 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.
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 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!
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.
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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