The Vegan Fair

For all people interested in making a positive difference to the world showing up at the Friends Meeting House in Lancaster on May 12 is a must. From 11am-5pm West Lancashire Vegan Fair will be holding the biggest vegan event in Lancashire.

Designed not only for vegans and vegetarians their aim is to educate as many people as possible about the vegan lifestyle, showing the real reasons why this way of life is adopted and how easy it is to follow.

For many people being a vegan just means that they don’t eat meat or any products that are produced from animals. However it is a far more complex theory than that. By becoming a vegan you are adopting a much healthier lifestyle and are protesting against the cruelty that animals are subjected to when they are being farmed for their produce. 

Most people feel that by purchasing free range they are making sure that they are only buying products from well looked after birds. Unfortunately most people don’t realise that free range just means that the birds were given an opportunity to go outside, there are no other requirements needed. Sadly, this means that thousands of birds are still caged up in a shed with only one small door that leads to a tiny outside area. The conditions they are subjected to are dreadful. Many of them die from asphyxiation and obtain injuries that aren’t treat, such as broken legs. To learn more about this feel free to visit www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/animals.html 

It is also not just about standing up against animal cruelty any more it is about investing in our future and our children’s future. With population figures rising the UN are now urging people to adopt a vegan lifestyle as it will help tackle climate change, world hunger and fuel poverty. This has been based upon the prediction that our population will be at a massive 9.1 billion by 2050 and “western tastes for diets rich in meat and dairy products are unsustainable.” This is according to the report from the United Nations Environment Programme’s international panel of sustainable resource management. 

There will also be a great range of speakers at the fair which will include Dominic Berry, Manchester’s award winning vegan poet, Sea Shepherd, the international organisation who campaign against the killing of dolphins, seals, whales and sharks, Dean Bracher, who helps teach the vegan lifestyle and Brett Lund who helps run Beautiful Planet, Preston’s vegetarian/vegan cafe. She will be explaining how the cafe gets grants and how they promote veganism by handing out free recipe booklets and vegan food. 

The vegan food fair will not only be educational but a fantastic day out because there will be more than 50 stalls spread around two floors, free vegan food, vegan cookery demos, films, free recipe booklets, a vegan cafe and a children’s area. So even if you haven’t adopted the vegan lifestyle but have an interest in learning about it pop down and see for yourself what it has to offer. Lets help make the world a better place. 

This piece featured in atLancaster magazine, feel free to check it out and to also get some great ideas for vegan meals :) 

http://issuu.com/atlancaster/docs/may2012website/5

The South Yorkshire Infidels....what a JOKE!

The other night I struggled to sleep and decided to snoop around on Facebook, as I went from link to link I came across this page, The South Yorkshire Infidels. This is what they have posted on their about section,

“The SYI are a group of right wing patriots, loyalists, and nationalists. We will stand with anyone willing to fight the enemies of Britain and for the right of its indigenous people. We are against Islamic jihad, the Islamic takeover of parts of the UK, militant Irish republicanism, Zionism, Immigration, EU membership, Multiculturalism, Communism and the militant left.

We are not part of any other...... counter jihad group but we do have alliances with various other Infidel, Patriot, Loyalist, Nationalist and Right Wing groups. We are not connected to any political party nor do we discriminate against any member of a political party. All are welcome.

We say it as we see it, if you don't like it, you know what to do! The End.

What's best for our people and Britain, S.I.N.A.O. KTF”

Completed bewildered i continued to scroll through comments, status updates and pictures and can not for the life of me understand how this web page has been allowed by Facebook to even exist. They highlight the racist attacks on white people and how white people are the real victims where the police ignore them and refer to them as a minority. Trust me the police aren’t exactly renown for coming to the aid of racist attacks on people from different races either, dare i mention Stephen Lawrence, Rolan Adams, Quddus Ali, Mukthar Ahmed and Ricky Peel.

Seeing the following comment proved that this website is a hate campaign designed to fuel hatred and anger within racist nobodies, in March this comment was left,

“Racist african living at 321 lowedges rd, sheffield, s8 7hs. Called our lass a "white" bitch and as usual cops refuse 2 do owt as shes a minority. Hope sum1 repays favour NFSE KTF GSTQ”

Racism on any angle angers me....since I was a young girl I have always been surrounded by people from different races and not once have I felt any prejudice or indifference to them...I do not believe that “immigrants are stealing our jobs” I do not believe that “immigrants are lazy and take our benefits.” These are old age beliefs from narrow minded people who have (all their life) lived in a country that is (compared to others) financially stable and not run by a dictatorship.

We are from Britain, not an african village where people are murdered in front of us, we haven’t had to endure total governmental collapse like the Albanians did or go through a savage and murderous war like they had to in Bosnia. People have a right to seek asylum, people have a right to want a better life, people have rights no matter what their colour or religion.

However I am not totally ignorant that with some religions and races their comes extremists, but that gives no one the right to generalize a whole population. Through out our entire British history we have had extremist views some of which have influenced the whole country, for example witch burnings.

This page sickens me and to know that there are more out there angers me. There are racist attacks all over the world and there is forms of terrorism from every nation. I am all up for opinions and freedom of speech but not when its from people who are only giving half truths.

The page also has a link to this recent attack,

“We have been given a picture of a young boy in a bad way, this happened in Hyde, Greater Manchester. The boy was attacked by a group of ’asian’ (newspeak for Muslim) thugs on Saturday, 4th February 2012. No more details as yet, but it makes you wonder after the Rhea Page incident, if they DO get caught, will they also get a ‘slap on the wrists’? Our children should NOT be victims to these sort of attacks, the sooner this country wakes up and realises what the hell is going on, the better, NS!

Jojo

Update, his name is Daniel, he was attacked by 10 muslim youths. Kav and Dan were walking up Market Street, Hyde..minding their own business when a gang of at least 10 asian lads beat them up. Dans in hospital awaiting surgery……kav is home, bruised, battered, shook up.”

Sure this case is terrible and my heart goes out to the agony and suffering those lads went through but dare this be used as an example that only white people have to endure racist attacks?!? For every case that is shown of a white person being racially abused I will find one right back of an asian or black person being attacked, for example the murder of Anuj Bidve, a young Asian man from Lancaster University in December 2011. Out in Salford with nine of his friends when he is shot in the head by a WHITE thug! When questioned in court for his crime the only answer he gave was to state that his name was Kiaran “Psycho” Stapleton.

As i have said earlier in this post, racism on any level should not be tolerated whether it is aimed at a black, white or asian person, however their should not be websites up promoting revenge attacks on any one. These people can only be described in one way and that is “THICK.” If you come across any pages similar to this one I urge you to report it, racism needs to be stamped out and equality needs to be promoted!

These are a few more of the South Yorkshire Infidels status updates,

“just think all these ppl out of work strugglin this year saving every penny to get things in for ur kids and family saving every penny just to get ur decorations or even a xmas fuckin dinner wud this be happening if ther was so many immegrants wud ther be this much uproar if our country was still urs, wud ther fuck ther wud be xmas jobs coming out of ur ears ther wud be benifits for those who do struggle ther wud be money for every 1 BURN THE LOT OF EM OR BOOT EM BACK...2012 MAKE GREAT BRITAIN GREAT AGAIN........either that or turn muslim or jewish”

“Hitler walks into the meeting room and turns to his trusted staff, "I want you to organise the execution of 10,000 Jews and 1 kitten."

Everyone looks around the table and after a long silence, Goering pipes up, "Mein Führer, why do you want to kill a kitten?"

Hitler smiles and turns to the rest of the table, "You see, no one cares about the Jews."

“seems that we've been screen shotted again by some fuckin little tick worm SAD FUCKIN LOW LIFE LEFT WING BASTARDS I HOPE YOU GET GANG RAPED BY 100 MUSLIMS”

Just to clarify these comments are from the South Yorkshire Infidels web page on Facebook, I’ve highlighted them to show how disgusting these people are. I have also reported the page to Facebook in hope that it is removed!

100th anniversary of the "unsinkable ship"

A hundred years ago the Titanic represented dreams, glamour and a new life...it was a romantic idea that, sadly, never got fulfilled.

Despite the incident happening a century ago there aren’t many people out there who won’t have heard about the tragic demise of the ship.

on the 10th of April 1912 the Titanic set sail from Southampton to New York with 2,224 people on board. This included some of the wealthiest people in the world and the first class section of the boat was designed to be the definition of comfort and luxury. She was built complete with libraries, restaurants, a gymnasium and a swimming pool. Unfortunately she was also accompanied with the nickname “the unsinkable ship.”

On the 14th of April the Titanic hit an iceberg which caused 5 of her 16 watertight compartments to flood with icy water, which led to the ship sinking and breaking in half within 2 and a half hours. Winthin a couple of hours the biggest ship afloat at the time was no longer visible because she laid at the bottom of the sea along with many of her passengers. 1,514 people died that night, many froze to death in the water but almost 1,000 people were still on board when she broke in half and sank.

The irony of the incident was highlighted in the fact that the ship had modern advanced safety features, such as water tight compartments and doors, unfortunately the Titanic was not equipped with enough life boats, in fact there was only enough to evacuate a third of the passengers.

That night itself has flooded British history in grief, upset and anger. Not only did the lack of life boats prove the naivety and over confidence of the ships owner and captain but the inadequate training of the crew was also highlighted. They believed that if they filled the life boats fully they would buckle, they were not aware that the life boats were strong and had been repeatedly tested before the ship set sail. This mistake led to some of them only being half filled. Nothing but panic and fear consumed that night which not only led to further mistakes but unfortunately resulted in the worst maritime disaster in history.

Since Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic further interest surrounded the history of the ship but with this week being the 100th anniversary of the sinking a Titanic memorial cruise is taking place. The MS Balmoral will take the same journey as the Titanic as it tries to recreate the original voyage. It is expected to arrive at the wreck site in time for the scheduled memorial services at the weekend. Our thoughts should go out to the victims whilst we hope that nothing this tragic happens again. Despite some grievances I have with the BBC this link shows an interesting step by step guide on what happened when the Titanic started sinking http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17511820

More corruption in Thailand

If you have read my previous blogs it will be of no surprise to hear that I had an amazing time at the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. It is a relaxed, caring and joyous sanctuary for previously abused elephants to live out their final days without the fear of being starved or beaten.

Thailand is famous for being a beautiful and picturesque country but underneath all the appealing cosmetics lies a deeply corrupt government that carries out severe actions when anyone speaks out against them.

The elephant has always been a trademark for Thailand, they are symbolized as an object of worship. Their main beer is named “Chang” which is Thai for elephant, their houses and shops are lined with ornaments in the shape of elephants and many wear clothes and jewellery with the sacred animal on. However their hypocrisy goes on to amaze the western tourists, as your visit to the ENP will teach you, they far from treat them as the gentle and peaceful animals they indeed are.

They are seen as domesticated animals, not wild (despite their rapid decline) so it is perfectly acceptable for Thai people to beat them into submission from babies, to stab them in the eyes if they don’t do what they are told and to wander the busy streets of Thailand preforming tricks in exchange for food.

The ENP was set up by Sangduen Chialert, or “Lek” to people that know her, she has always been disgusted by the Thai peoples treatment of elephants and consistently, throughout her life, campaigned against this. However this has caused her many problems with the Thai government who have, many times, intercepted her acts of goodness.

Unfortunately corruption struck again on the 8th of Feb as the the ENP was raided,

“On Wednesday 8 February approximately 100 government people descended on The Elephant Nature Park. They claimed they had an anonymous phone call alleging that the park was hiding some 70 wild elephants. They disrupted the park from early morning till evening, some 13 hours. They found nothing but fully documented elephants living in sanctuary. Some were old, some sick, some wounded but all were properly documented and well cared for. It’s public knowledge that there are 35 elephants at ENP. ENP’s attorney was on hand and presented the proper documentation”

This was taken from a blog shown on the ENP Facebook page http://www.asianelephantstories.blogspot.com/2012/02/wfft-enp-both-raided-but-why.html

Definitely worth a read!!!

However what is even more interesting is the theory behind why the ENP was so randomly attacked. It appears that some time in December last year 2 wild elephants from the Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi were found slaughtered for their bones, ivory and meat. Their carcasses were then burnt. According to http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/276010/weekly-highlights The Kaeng Krachan Parks chief was involved in it all.

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with Lek and her lovely park, but hold on as all will be unravelled soon!

It turns out that when news got out about the slaughter of the elephants the only 2 organizations that stood up and actually did something about finding out who the real culprits were was ENP and Wildlife Friends Foundation of Thailand (WFFT). They managed to find strong evidence that The National Park Service were actually involved (Despite that fact that they themselves had declared they would punish the real culprit.)

Lek had amazingly managed to get hold of a video clip which would show who was behind the elephant trading, however (not surprisingly) the government didn’t want to know. Now this is where the power of the press got involved, after interviewing Lek and the founder of WFFT 5 park rangers from the national park were arrested on involvement.

Since then both ENP and WFFT have been raided. Unfortunately the raid at WFFT was far more severe, with heavily armed government officials showing up, visiting school children intimidated and the president of WFFT, Khun Jansaeng Sangnanork being arrested. Apparently it was also made clear at the raid that this was the consequence for speaking out.

Fortunately Lek was not at the Park when the raid at ENP took place, if she was there are fears that she too would have been arrested. Gladly though she is now back and according to the blog http://www.asianelephantstories.blogspot.com/2012/02/wfft-enp-both-raided-but-why.html

she is equipped with even more evidence of elephant trading in Thailand.

The fight continues and I know who’s side I'm on, so if you would like to show your support to these amazing organizations here are some sites for you to check out.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/urgent-plea-for-rescued-thai-wildlife/

Elephant Nature Park and ENP Facebook

Wildlife Friends of Thailand and WFFT Facebook

Auschwitz

Sat in my GCSE history class in year 11 at high school I was immediately enthralled by the topic of WW2, I didn’t struggle with it, I didn’t dread going to classes and I certainly didn’t find the homework a hassle. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when I passed my class with a Grade A. Unfortunately when I got to sixth form at lancaster Girls Grammar the topic was on the 16th Century revolution, unlike Ripleys sixth form who got to study WW2 in more depth (no bitterness at all). Since then I have always been interested in books based on or around that period of time, especially on Auschwitz. This is what has fueled my desire to actually go to Poland and see Auschwitz for myself, hopefully in May this year.

Auschwitz was a network of concentration camps built in Poland, just outside Krakow during the war (1939-1945) by the Germans.

Auschwitz 1 was the base camp

Auschwitz 2 (Birkenau) was the extermination camp

Auschwitz 3 was a labour camp

It also consisted of 45 satellite camps.

Throughout the years of 1942-1944 thousands of Jews from all over Europe were taken there and gassed to death. They had no idea what was happening to them and a few last letters that have been discovered are on display at the London Imperial War Museum (complete must see for history geeks like myself)

Despite the devastating and disgusting things that went on at Auschwitz a common belief is that it only happened to Jewish people. The German army targeted anyone that was different, and this included Jehovah’s Witnesses and people from minorities.

It is now common knowledge that medical experiments also took place in Auschwitz 1 on the prisoners.One of the most well known physicians from this period of time was SS captain Dr.Josef Mengele, also known as The angel of death due to his cruelty when deciding who would retain for work on the camps and who would perish in the gas chambers. To read more on Mengele check out http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007060

The types of medical experiments that took place were pseudoscientific research on infants, twins and dwarfs as well as preforming forced sterilizations, castrations and hypothermia experiments on adults. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189

The above website also supplies details and figures on how many Jewish people were transported to Auschwitz to be exterminated,

Hungary - 426,000

Poland - 300,000

France - 69,000

Netherlands - 60,000

Greece - 55,000

Bohemia and Moravia - 46,000

Slovakia - 27,000

Belgium - 25,000

Yugoslavia - 10,000

Italy - 7,500

Norway - 690

The majority of these people will have immediately been sent to the gas chambers, a small amount of them will have been sent to work in the labour camps and will have eventually succumbed to death due to starvation, disease or murdered by one of the guards.

In Auschwitz stood “the black wall” were SS guards would execute thousands of prisoners. This type of inhumane treatment is excellently portrayed in the film Schindler's List and innocently hinted at in the book The boy in the striped pyjammas.

As well as these a book I thoroughly enjoyed and successfully brought me to tears was The man who broke into Auschwitz. This book is an account of the life of Denis Avey, who was a British solider serving in WW2. He was captured and made prisoner at Auschwitz, witnessing the terrible things that took place. He managed to befriend a couple of the Jewish people and one day swopped places, exchanging his British uniform for their striped one. This way he got to witness first hand the horrific conditions the jewish people had to endure, living and sleeping in filth, slowly being starved to death, whilst at the same time being expected to work to their full potential all day long. If these requirements were not met, for example falling over or passing out due to exhaustion, they were shot.

This book is definitely worth a read.

I have always had an interest in history but as I have said before WW2 and the regime of Nazi Germany is a real interest of mine.

There is a lot to take in and learn about WW2 but i do recommend London’s imperial war museum for any one that is interested in learning in depth about what and why it occurred. I will be sure to blog about my experiences and put up my pictures from my trip to Auschwitz.

Stephen Lawrence case

The 3rd of January was a significant day for many who have always followed the brutal and cowardly murder of Stephen Lawrence. This was the day where 2 out of the 5 original suspects, Gary Dobson and David Norris, where sentenced to life imprisonment. However despite the air of relief that after 18 years some justice has finally been done for this young and promising man there are still the other 3 suspects that have evaded the law.
This case is not just about a racist murder but now represents how the Met had deep rooted steropical beliefs about black people and if they had acted accordingly and lived up to their job description these 5 men would have been caught alot sooner.
It all started in 1993, on the 22nd of April. Stephen Lawrence and Duwayne Brooks were waiting for a bus in Eltham, South London when a group of 5 white youths started towards them. Duwayne was lucky enough to have not been caught by them but unfortunately as soon as they caught up to Stephen they beat and stabbed him. As soon as they ran off, Stephen's adrenaline forced him to get up and start running with Duwayne, concealing the full effects of the attack. It wasn't long before he collapsed bleeding on the ground. Duwayne called the ambulance from a nearby phone box whilst passer-bys sat with Stephen. Due to the nature of the call and the awareness that both young men were black a police car showed up instead, this led to Stephen dying in the street and Duwayne being the main suspect. They didnt believe his story that this was a racist attack and refused to check out the area despite Duwayne telling them the direction that the murderers ran off in. Due to the colour of their skin the police made a rash and career threatening decision that this had been a fight between the 2 young black men. This case would go on to highlight the amount of murder cases where deep rooted racism had played a part in justice not being served. This was called the William Macpherson's inquiry in 1999.
The Inquiry was brought about as a response to the anger towards the police's negligant and lazy effort at securing a prosecution against the perpetrators. By this point it was well known that days after the murder many people contacted the police in different manners to name the group of racist thugs that have not only killed Stephen but have set upon many other people from different races. These names were Gary Dobson, David Norris, Luke Knight and Jamie and Neil Acourt (brothers) and still the police spent more time covering up their corruption and dealing with criticism from all angles.
Other racially motivated crimes where justice has not been served accordingly were brought up in the inquiry as evidence of racism within the police.
Rolan Adams - Killed in 1991 by a gang of white youths who called themselves the "Nazi turn outs." This happened in South London and Rolan was just 15 years old. Some of the same police that were involved in this case were also on the Stephen Lawrence case and similarities to how the murders were treat was highlighted in the inquiry.
Quddus Ali - He was subjected to a brutal racist attack from 8 white youths that left him in a coma. He was beaten and stabbed to the point where it was obvious that the attackers had intended to kill him. This happened in 1993 and in 1995 the only man to go to court over the attack, John Rutter, was cleared. Despite the fact that Rutters brother had said to an under cover cop that John had done it, this could not be used as evidence as it was not put forward in the trial.
Mukthar Ahmed - In 1994 the 19 year old was savagely beaten by a gang of 25 racists. His face was swollen and bruised, his scalp almost removed and his skull was fractured in 3 places. Nicky Fuller was eventually arrested for the crime after his ex girlfirend told poice that he had come met her in blood stained jeans boasting that he "done a paki". Unfortunately her selfless good deed didnt do much, Nicky Fuller was charged with causing GBH (Grievous Bodily Harm) and violent disorder. He pleaded guilty to the second minor charge which led to the CPS dropping the more serious charge. The judge then let him walk free from the court as he had already served 6 months on remand.
Shah Alam - A 17 year old student was set upon by a gang of 10-12 racist thugs. They hit him over the head with a hammer and repeatedly stabbed and kicked him. He was rushed to hospital where he had to have hours of surgery on his lungs, liver and kidneys. When released from hospital he had to be moved out of london for his safety beacuse whilst he was admitted his brother in law had recieved racist hate mail, one of which read "Be prepared for whats to come! You Paki!" A large gang of white youths ran down East London showing knives and sticks in broad day light with NO intervention from police. When they picked up one suspect he had blood on his shoes but the poice said that the amount was too small too test so they wrote to the family and said they were closing their investigation. After public pressure and positive ID's made from the victim and witnesses 5 youths stood trial. They were (surprisingly acquitted) They stood trial twice and due to the racist beliefs of the judge (both times) he said there was no case to answer against the 5. Whats worse is that when the 5 left court one of them went up to Shah's brother and punched him in the chest, the police did nothing and when people complained the police said that there was nothing they could do about it.
Ricky Peel - In 1997 Ricky had been racially abused and went missing. His body showed up in the River Thames and the police refused to investigate the racial incident and claimed that he must have slipped into the river. They had no evidence to back this theory up. An independent pathologist said that 3rd pary involvement can not be ruled out and pointed out various suspicious circumstances.
As well as re opening all these cases the Macpherson Inquiry also looked in to the amount of black deaths in police custody and concluded that there was nearly 8 times more black deaths than white and that no police officer has ever stood trial for one.
With 2 of Stephens suspects finally imprisoned all that can be hoped for is that every racist murderer be sent down. Through this blog I have hoped to highlight the disgust I felt when reading all about these cases, to me their is no lower than a racist and if we continue to ignore their crimes and walk away from their victims we are just making them stronger. Fight for Equality on all sides!

*Of course the Macpherson report included a lot more than I have gone into, it stood to make our police force a stronger and more fair one, it tackled racism and made sure all the police that were found to be racist and negligant were fired. I do recommend people go through it if you have the time of course,a summary of it can be found on http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/1999/feb/24/lawrence.ukcrime12

Thailand…Elephant Nature Park

Now this blog is a difficult one, not because I’m lost for words (a very rare occurrence) but because my week at ENP was one of the best times of my life so far and I have waaaaaay too many things to tell you, but ill give it a wiz and hopefully I will be able to portray my amazing experiences through the power of blog!

When I arrived in Chiang Mai I didn’t know what to expect, I was aware that I had booked a week with ENP but going off their website my expectations didn’t go further than a tiny hut in the middle of nowhere surrounded by elephants ALONE. I couldn’t have been more wrong it was simply beautiful…not just the place, but the people aswell (I made some awesome friends, a couple are American but I won’t hold that against them :p) The land stretched for miles surrounded by jungle, with a river flowing through it. The building was huge and the bedrooms were sooo cute, all my previous fears had disappeared within minutes of seeing it. Luckily I had an awesome room mate (Brenda Rodriguez) and that just added to the fun J We immediately made friends with the lovely Kate Comer, Holly Pfeiffer, Karen Gorham and Eline Van den berg and for the week we were inseparable.

Now it wasn’t just fun and games, we were told on the 1^st day that we would be working, the park relies upon the help of the volunteers to keep it running. (However there was always plenty of free time to chill out, wander around ORRRR drink some thai moonshine, and play thai UNO!) We were separated into 4 groups and the jobs included….preparing the ele food, cleaning up the ele poo (not my favourite one :/) cutting corn, planting trees and pineapples, shovelling sand and watering plants and baby trees. But surrounded by elephants, the beautiful scenery and great company not one of these wasn’t fun J

In the evenings we would either have a talk from some of the people that made ENP possible, or have a laugh with our amazing volunteer co coordinators (Jack, Chet, Chai and Thep). The talks were very educational and extremely eye opening. We were told about how each and nearly every elephant in the park had been through extreme suffering in their lives, about how they were beaten and tortured by their previous mahouts (elephant trainers) and some even blinded! Despite the fact that the emblem of the elephant represents Thailand and they are considered sacred animals, the country still believes in hurting them to make them passive and trainable. This is were Lek comes in (Sangduen Chailert) since she was a young girl she has fought against the traditional practice of the “Crush” (a method of torture that is bestowed upon each elephant to crush their spirit and make them easy to control). When they are young the elephants are forced into wooden cages and beaten and stabbed until they succumb to the mahouts demands. This goes on for days and many elephants don’t survive this traumatic process, but if they do they are then forced into a hard life of entertaining tourists, being badly beaten and underfed. It is a controversial topic for Thailand as elephants are classed as domestic creatures (despite the figures of them declining rapidly) and Lek has struggled throughout the years to get support from Thai people, especially the government, to them it is simply a tradition and things like elephant rides and elephant shows bring tourism and money to Thailand.

But in reality the fact that we partake in these events does nothing but reaffirm to the people of Thailand that these methods of torture are necessary.

It has taken Lek years of hard work, constant campaigning and an unlimited amount of inner strength to achieve what she has managed today. With 35 elephants at the park including two babies, she has managed to buy abused elephants which have been close to deaths door from their mahouts and give them a home full of care and love. She has also managed to train young elephants that have never gone through “the Crush” with positive reinforcement – showing that painful and torturous methods are not needed.

However Lek’s fight for the elephants doesn’t stop there, with the recent flooding that consumed parts of Thailand, many cats and dogs were abandoned and left to die. With the help of volunteers Lek managed to buy boats and medical supplies to go to their aid. The elephant park and office is now full of many dogs and cats all being treated for any injuries or illnesses they sustained due to the floodings. I am glad to report that they all seemed very happy with their new home and seem to have no problems sunbathing next to the elephants J

My week there was not only eye opening but left me an emotional wreck when I had to leave. I sincerely believe that there isn’t a more beautiful and idyllic place to go both in vision but in cause aswell. Support Elephant Nature Park today!