Besides veterinary care, we also support projects that focus on the larger issues of captive management.

Street Elephant Rescue Project, Golden Triangle, northern Thailand.
This project was started in 2006 to save elephants from the horrific conditions of street begging. The project gives shelter to rescued street elephants and their keepers.

Rescued elephants are involved in the camp's education activities with local school children and do not work.

The camp is currently full and we are unable to save more elephants. The current residents still need constant upkeep and care. While it is exciting to raise funds for new rescues, it is of no use unless we can continue to support them.

Please assist us with your donation. 

Support Plai Tawan, Nong Dah and the other rescued elephants through our enjoyable Elephant Dating scheme.

For the latest news, read project manager, John Roberts' lively blog.

Project partner Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation
Project managers: John Roberts, Khun Jantra Kumboonreung

About working elephants
Elephants have been used as beasts of burden down the centuries. From ancient battles to the modern logging industry, the Asian elephant has deployed its remarkable strength and unique relationship with its human keepers to mankind's pursuit of progress.

Today, the situation is quite different. The last war in which elephants were used was the Vietnam war of the 1960s. With logging banned in Thailand in 1989, the elephant became a redundant worker, still requiring substantial care from its keeper.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, many of these elephants were taken on to the streets to beg for their food. Others were employed by the tourist industry. A minority were saved by elephant sanctuaries, but these restrict their intake because of the lack of habitable space.

Caring for captive elephants is not a short-term vision: if their cousins ever do disappear from the wild, captive populations will become crucial in the battle to save the entire species from exinction.