Patty goes home!!!

I’m excited to continue on about my special elephant rescue I was able to be a part of while visiting Krabi, Thailand thanks to my friend Aaron Jackson from Planting Peace and one of his missions is rescuing abused elephants in Thailand and setting them free on an elephant sanctuary where they will never be ridden, beaten, or starved again.

Something I did learn and all schedules will depend on and that is that people in Thailand will not move an elephant on any day other than a Saturday. Something about the omen, or what it does to the universe in their beliefs or something, but it is of course always respected so our transport had to be planned of course on a Saturday. There are so many moving parts of a rescue for Aaron to deal with, from the actual location of where the elephant is, or will be, to how far to the sanctuary. Is the elephant able to be driven to the sanctuary or is the animal going to need to a walk and swim across the river or other times they have been hauled on a ferry to get them to their next location. These are things I have witnessed Aaron do to get an elephant to safety and perhaps caused a bit of anxiety of what I was walking into. I made it clear I wasn't able to swim a murky river with an elephant in tow. He would be worried about the elephant and me!

This was Patty’s former working mahout.

Aaron assured me this rescue would be a straight forward one and he was right. We started the journey at the Following Giants sanctuary Saturday morning which happened to be fairly close where they had been working Patty the previous day. Originally they had planned to welcome Patty to the sanctuary and not witness the loading and transport for some reason I wasn’t privy to. After a bit they realized the truck was going to be late, and maybe a couple other hiccups so we all loaded up and headed to where Patty was to wait the arrival of the transport truck.

One thing I need to add about this is really painting a picture of what I am doing and where I am positioned, etc. Here I am in a black dress and tennis shoes, I don’t have pants with me in Thailand, and we are in the middle of a jungle with minimal paths to allow for the elephant truck and the vans hauling us. I feel we were picking her up at a teak farm so there were lots of little trees, small in diameter being grown around us, and that was about it as of protection for a human when have a wild animal on the loose. Patty had been in chains and abused all of her life, we needed to remove some of the chains in order for her to be able to move to get to the truck and also into the truck. During this I hear someone holler “grab a tree!” and that’s when I realized exactly what was going on and I may be in way over my. head.

Let me add, again Aaron always greets the elephant and seriously has a heart to heart with this animal. He lets them know it will be their last time working and he is there to help them and give them a good life. It is something special to witness Aaron just having time with the elephant. So that morning I believe he walked up to her and said “Girl I’m taking you home!” and we all believe she knew it. As you can see above, it is a massive truck which is very common in Thailand and I’m guessing to haul elephants, Both Aaron and the owner of the sanctuary said that had never seen an elephant almost jump into a truck without needing assistance of a ramp or a mound to make the entry to the truck easier. Patty was ready to go as she stepped in knowing it was her last journey.

This is where I just had to cry it out again for quite some time, just hearing her chains rattle as she walked to get into the truck, thinking of what I had witnessed of them loading a wild elephant into the massive truck. Knowing this was Patty’s last day where she would get hit or go hungry and old wounds would start to heal. I remember many of the team came and gave me love and told me to just genuinely let the tears flow. They each needed to their first rescued and basically for me to not be embarrassed because it happened to all of them. I announced as we got into the van to follow Patty home to ignore me in the corner as I just sob my way home.

Typically when they bring an elephant back to the sanctuary they basically give it a welcome party with a giant buffet at the start of the sanctuary. It is their way to instantly get a full belly welcome and perhaps show the start of their new life once joining the sanctuary. At that time they are assigned a mahout, which I will explain shortly, and the elephant then starts it life at the sanctuary never being ridden again, or really touched by humans as it is free to roam the property without any fences, has a free reign to walk wherever, fed and monitored at all times. This time because of not knowing how Patty will react being finally released from chains, they decided to take her further onto the property where she wouldn’t be near buildings and would have more space to breathe in her new environment and ensure her safety as well as the staff and the team.

A mahout is such a special human when looking on the preservation side. Every elephant in life will have a human handler called a “mahout”. This person is responsible for the elephant whether it be on good terms at a preserve or they are the worker mahout that uses the animal like a tractor and beats it to get better performance . All elephants on the sanctuary have a personal mahout that will follow them and be with them 24/7 and ensure their safety all around. Since there are not fences, they make sure the elephant doesn’t leave the property, they make sure their bowel movements are proper for their intake, monitor their daily well being, feed and bond with them, and you will notice chairs all over the property and those are for the mahouts when the elephants stop to graze or bask in the sun. The mahouts can just chill on the sidelines waiting for their buddy elephant to make a move.

This is Patty’s arrival when two elephants came to greet her. Her former mahout was still on her and stayed to help get her acclimated for a brief moment.

When Patty was to be unloaded, many mahouts were brought in to help incase things went the wrong direction, Ray the gentleman that owns the sanctuary along with his daughter who is now a Veterinarian, and all the transport team of Aarons were all ready in a pasture where you can see above there is a knook in a tree line to give a little protection for Patty. Immediately once she is unloaded she has all chains removed from her except for one on her foot that has a long drag to be able to grab incase of emergency for a short time period. Ideally she would be able to unloaded free of other animals for some time to let her get her bearings. Once during the unload process did someone holler out “grab a tree”, and again my big butt looking for a place to hide was entertaining in itself. Again this is a wild animal that has been hurt for her entire life by human hands and we are setting her free so no one knows what to expect.

Patty was nothing more that a proper lady and just enjoyed her sugar cane and some extra food from Aaron and a few others to welcome her. She never truly displayed any anger or aggression towards anyone. And quite quickly after she was unloaded, two more of the elephants walked up as you can see above and yet again we heard “grab a tree” because meeting of elephants, in the wild could have lots of crazy scenarios. One particular occasion Aaron was charged by a bull elephant as they dropped the metal head gear releasing the animal. I’m sure that is always top of his mind for himself and his girlfriend who are always close in range, not to mention everyone else around in the area.

I am forever grateful for Aaron not only for his amazing efforts everywhere. He genuinely is a special human that is a gift to this world. But I am also grateful for Aaron giving me this opportunity to have such a special core memory that I will forever have. I want to plan to do again next year with him and make sure Yasiel and Shannon can join to allow them that opportunity. I strongly encourage you to follow on all of your social media platforms Planting Peace to always be abreast of what Aaron and his current mission is, especially when he has a rescue going. You are able to donate to his rescues and watch each elephant go thru its rehoming. Please message if would like more information or would like to be able to sponsor or witness.

Until next time,

Jenny