If I may get serious for a moment...
Elephants are beautiful and intelligent creatures. Nearly every "owned" elephant in the world has undergone up to a week of a training method known as paajaan or phaajaan, which is basically a torture method involving physical pain and sleep deprivation. The reason for this torture is to break the elephant's natural spirit and teach them that humans are "the boss" and that their orders must be followed. Even well-meaning owners use this method because the elephants are an economic necessity in Asia and the owners believe this is the only way to make them useful. It has been in use for thousands of years in similar forms.
The founder of Elephant Nature Park, Lek, wants to change all this by using methods of positive reinforcement and gentleness and loving care, methods which have been used successfully to some extent in other countries but have not been accepted in Thailand and are still not widespread. In fact, only a handful of elephants that are owned outright by the Park and were gotten at a very young age have not gone through paajaan. Sadly, most of the babies you see in my pictures are only at the park to be born and grow up a little, then their owners will take them back and subject them to "training" and put them to work.
The situation of elephants worsened when the Thai government outlawed logging in 1995, which led to a lot of unemployed elephants who are now only suitable for begging, circus acts, or trekking. Beyond the torture, these lifestyles are extremely poor circumstances for elephants to live in. Max was hit by a semi truck while begging and forced to live in a parking lot for some years. Carrying trekkers is very dangerous and risky to an elephant's health.
Even the "painting elephants" who have become popular recently are extremely poorly treated. While it is true they don't have to perform physical labor to earn their keep, they are still subjected to the torture training, and are kept shackled at night and not allowed the freedom and normal social interaction which is very important to a healthy elephant.
Needless to say, I find all of this an extremely distressing situation. For these reasons, I encourage all of you, if you should travel to Asia, to not support trekking camps, buy elephant goods, or support begging elephants, as strange as it may seem, because it will only continue to support this very sad economy of tortured elephants. If you have the opportunity to visit, please visit places like Elephant Nature Park and the Thai Elephant Conservancy which do not employ torture training and which give the elephants some of the freedom and dignity they deserve. It may not seem like "as much fun" if you don't get to see them wear funny hats and jump through hoops or whatever, but trust me, just seeing them doing their native thing is incredibly fun! And it is also, in my opinion, a fair price to pay. In America, a person would be arrested for subjecting a dog or a cat to the treatment that these elephants routinely undergo (Elephants are categorized as "livestock" in Thai law and so are not protected as well as their endangered status should ensure).
I also encourage you, if you are concerned about the well-being of elephants, to educate yourself further and if possible make a donation to support Lek's cause. Right now, her gentle training methods are not well accepted. She is fighting an uphill battle against established processes in what is very much a man's world. Given time, though, she will be able to demonstrate that her ways work better and improve the lot of elephants in Thailand. Even if they still have to work, just the elimination of paajaan would be a huge step forward. Please learn more about Lek and her work at the following link:
http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/
