Island hopping around Southern Thailand definitely includes a lot of beach days. However, beaches are not all that these tropical island paradises have to offer! Take Koh Samui, for example. One of the best things to do in Koh Samui is to visit the ethical elephant sanctuary, Samui Elephant Haven. Unfortunately, this Thailand elephant sanctuary is facing the possibility of losing its lease on the land these elephants have called home since 2017. Keep reading to meet the herd and find out all the ways you can help!
Samui Elephant Haven
Founded by Maew Suriya, the Samui Elephant Haven provides respite for elephants rescued from exploitation in the tourism and logging industries. Their land includes 11,000 square meters of pastures for the elephants to roam and play. The caring and kind staff fondly care for the unique needs of each of the rescue elephants. Their herd of elephants ranges in ages, most with unfortunate histories of exploitation and abuse. Many of them come from Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and other places around Thailand associated with the logging and tourism industries.
Samui Elephant Haven is one of the most ethical facilities in Thailand, putting the elephants’ needs first. There is no riding, or even bathing the elephants, as the haven respects their boundaries and does not want to force the elephants to endure any unwanted touching. The facility does have several pools where the elephants can bathe when they feel like it and without the interference of tourists.
Meeting the Elephant Herd
On our morning trip to the sanctuary, we got to meet the entire herd. There is an eclectic group of elephants with their own quirks and personalities. There is Sri Nin, known as Grandma, who was born in 1967 and is now missing most of her teeth. She fondly looks after the younger female elephants jokingly referred to as “The Gang,” including Kwan Sumai, Nong Peach, and Moloair. Unfortunately, with Moloair, you can see the scars of abuse. She has a hole in her trunk, most likely caused by the bull hooks some abusive mahouts use to control elephants. Today, she plays cheerfully with her new friends at the Haven. As the elephants wander around the open pasture area, they can play and enjoy delicious meals prepared by visitors and staff.
The herd also has several babies on site! Luna, the youngest, was actually an unexpected baby! Her mother was actually pregnant at the time she was rescued—unbeknownst to the staff! Haven is another baby elephant, born to mom Somboon in 2019. There is also another young male on-site, Perm Poon, at five years old.
The haven also features facilities to help house adult male elephants, which can be notoriously more difficult to care for because of their periods of must. There are actually two adult male elephants at the Haven, Plai Bang, and Sorn Ram.
How You Can Help
As of August of 2022, the Samui Haven Instagram announced that they were at risk of losing their land. The owner is threatening to sell to construction corporations looking to build luxury condos in the desirable hillside area of the island. If the sanctuary loses its lease, the elephants will most likely have to be split up and sent to other facilities around the island, and possibly Thailand. This means once again breaking up families within the herd that had been painstakingly reunited.
There are plenty of ways that we can pitch in to help the sanctuary keep its herd together. First, if traveling around Koh Samui Thailand, you can always schedule a visit or volunteering stint. You can book morning or evening tours directly through Samui Haven’s website. The tour costs 3000 baht ($84.25 at the time of writing this summer 2022 because of the drop in the exchange rate, but we paid around $100 in February of 2022).
If you have the time and energy, you can also sign up to volunteer at the Haven. Volunteers help in the daily chores of caring for the elephants, such as cleaning after the elephants, dealing with visitors, feeding activities, and general maintenance around the sanctuary. This is listed at 20,000 baht for a week, including room and board ($561.64).
If you can’t get to Thailand this summer to visit the elephant sanctuary in person, there are plenty of other ways you can help. The sanctuary has been quite ingenious during the hard times of COVID the past few years. When tourism in Thailand plummeted because of closed borders, the sanctuary set up a clever fundraising activity—creating and serving beautiful cake creations to the elephants. You can purchase three different sizes of cakes, the mini at 15 kg for 1,000 baht ($28), a large cake at 25 kg for 1,600 baht ($45), and a jumbo 80 kg cake for 5,000 baht ($140). With your cake purchase, you can customize the design and receive a hilarious video of Luna and the other elephants running to devour the tasty treat!
You can also adopt an elephant, by committing between $10-$250. Higher denominations come with a certification of adoption and other special perks, like a discount on visiting the facility. Finally, you can donate directly to the fundraiser in whatever increment you want. The Haven has a high financial goal to hit in order to protect their lease, $42,000 USD by the end of August 2022. They have a second phase to try to purchase the land themselves after they secure a three-year lease.
I cannot stress how amazing this facility is and how much your help would be directly securing a safe place for the herd that has already dealt with so much in their lives. Every dollar counts, so even if you only have a few to spare, your donation would surely be going to a good cause!
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