Mindful Wanderlust

Stories

Our time at Elephant Nature Park

*UPDATE*

It has been a few years since we have visited Elephant Nature Park. Our time spent there was educational and vital to our growth and evolution in terms of how we view the treatment of animals, and how important we feel transparency, honesty, and accepting constructive criticism is in the animal welfare and sanctuary world. We no longer agree wth close up/selfies of captive elephants or any other wild animal, nor do we feel it is beneficial to any animal to have hundreds of people in their space on a daily basis. 

There will be people-many of whom have far more experience with captive animals than we have, who feel it is perfectly fine for elephants and other wild animals to be touched, and bathed, and surrounded by humans. We simply feel that animals should be respected, and this means we should be mindful of their boundaries. We feel a smaller more intimate visit with captive animals is probably best for them with as little contact as possible. This is simply us being mindful about the personal space of other sentient beings. To us this is what living a vegan lifestyle is about. Respect. 

We will keep these posts up because they were a part of our past, and the beginning of the journey that led us to where we are today, but to be clear, we no longer agree with any of the close-up shots, bathing, or touching elephants, nor do we recommend visiting large scale sanctuaries that entertain upwards of 200 people per day.

Here at Elephant Nature Park we have had the pleasure to interact and spend time with some of the most incredible animals on the planet.

We’ve helped to care for a new born baby elephant and took a 14 hour ride to the border of Thailand and Laos to care for over 2000 dogs that were rescued from the illegal dog meat trade.

We made a big change in the way we look at the world and the way animals are treated, and decided that compassion, life, and animal rights is what is right for us.

And for the last 3 months we have been working with over 380 dogs at the Elephant Nature Park dog clinic.

We helped with treatments, vaccinations, cleaning, dog catching, and really really loving dogs.

We have met some incredible people who care for and love animals as much as we do, that have made us feel so very much at home here in the jungles of Thailand.

Our mornings here have been wonderful waking up to elephants trumpeting and dogs barking, watching animals walk in freedom.

From pigs, to elephants, to water buffalo, to chickens, they all have a safe place to live out their natural lives free from harm.

We have been welcomed into peoples homes and invited over for amazing burmese home cooking, gotten tattoos commemorating our time here, enjoyed more than one Mango vodka cranberry soda cocktail, and have truly enjoyed living in the jungle.

We know how fortunate we are to have been asked to live here and be a part of such an amazing community.

This has been the last 6 months of our lives……..

It is time to move on.

Our plan is to volunteer at more shelters around Thailand, and to hopefully make a difference in more animals lives. Thank you to everyone who has made every day fun and full of laughter.