Blind elephant calf ‘San Wan’ or ‘Sweet’ is just 3 years old , she was born in a tourist camp but when covid hit her keeper moved her back to his village in Khun Yuam District, Mae Hong Son Province, Thailand.

‘Sweet’ was not born blind rather in March 2022 she put her trunk into a bucket of pesticide and then touched her eyes. She was treated at the elephant hospital in Lampang, but they were unable to save her sight.

In recent months a monk ‘Phrakhru Od’ ( พระครูอ๊อด วีรวฑฺฒโน ภิกฺขุ) heard of Sweet’s plight and purchased her from her keeper at a cost of 450K THB.

 Subsequently he sent Sweet to the state owned ‘Thai Elephant Conservation Centre’ or TECC in what he describes as a “rescue” 

TECC is a traditional camp in which elephants are forced to perform, ridden, and are managed with chains and bullhooks but nowhere is the cruelty of camp more evident than in their training of elephant calves.

Young babies who should be playing carefree under the watchful eye of their mothers and family are instead isolated and shackled so tightly that they can barely move. Their fear and frustration all too apparent for all to see. This practise is heinous for any elephant but for one plunged into the darkness by sight loss this is unthinkable cruelty!

We beg monk ‘Phrakhru Od’ ( พระครูอ๊อด วีรวฑฺฒโน ภิกฺขุ) to remove Sweet from TECC and to relocate her to a venue where she will be managed with kindness and empathy, somewhere that will never chain her or use a bullhook on her, somewhere that will allow her the freedom to be an elephant doing elephant things with other elephants.

Humans have already stolen Sweet’s sight and her family from her we beg ‘Phrakhru Od’  พระครูอ๊อด วีรวฑฺฒโน ภิกฺขุ to show true heart and not to also steal her childhood and dignity away.