The elephant looked jaded, old, and uncared for. He walked towards us and, like most elephants; he looked to be a gentle giant as he glided ever so gracefully along the concrete road.
A small Thai man walked right beside him with a long wooden stick that was ready to strike should the elephant step out of line.
Two guys sat on the elephant’s back and, being totally honest, I found it hard not to stare and judge.
We were in Pai and had taken a trip out to Thom’s Pai Elephant camp on the outskirts of town.
We had passed it the previous day whilst on route to the hot springs and, despite the fact that I didn’t know anything about the place, I knew we had to go back there.
It was this sign and the scene behind it that caught my attention and made me want to go back.
Thom’s claim to treat their elephants like family. Animal cruelty is something that they don’t tolerate and they claim to give tourists an unforgettable experience where they’ll be able to “interact with elephants responsibly.”
The scene behind the sign painted a very different picture than what they were describing.
There stood a very large elephant and he was crammed into a wooden framed shack with no room to move.
He paced from side to side and he looked very agitated to be restricted in such a tight space.
Something just didn’t quite add up with what they claimed and what I saw so I wanted to investigate more, which led us to witness the scene that I described at the beginning of the post.
The elephant then came closer and, as he approached our bike, as much as I didn’t want to, I couldn’t but look in his eyes as he passed us.
In that moment, I remembered what it was like seeing wild elephants in the Serengeti and how free and healthy they looked.
This guy (or girl) that just passed us by looked the opposite of happy and healthy.
A huge wave of anger washed over me.
How could we, as a human race with brains and emotions, be treating an endangered species of animals like this?
Why are we paying money hungry monsters to break the spirits of baby elephants and empowering them to physically and mentally torture these beautiful animals at an early age to make them submissive?
And all of this so that tourists can sit on the back of a huge 9ft tall ‘wild’ animal and take some pictures.
It’s disgusting.

In an ideal world, all animals would have the space to roam freely
I was once that tourist I’m talking about so I can’t judge those that still ride elephants because they don’t know about the dark side of this industry.
And to be totally honest, like millions of other tourists, I couldn’t wait to get a picture on the back of an elephant when we first visited Thailand in 2011.
Without doing any research into these kinds of camps, we stupidly signed up for a 1-hour trek in Phuket.
My dream of riding through a pristine jungle on the back of an elephant that’s happy in his surrounds (how naive I was) was shattered.
It turned out to be one of the worst things we’ve ever done on our travels and I couldn’t wait for it to finish.
A guy carrying a bull-hook (which he wasn’t shy about using); the huge wooden frame that was placed on the elephants back so we could be comfortable; and the cramped spaces where these huge animals were kept between rides; it was all so wrong.
Like lots of other tourists, I was unaware of the brutality these elephants go through.
Had I known back then what I know now, I wouldn’t have done it.
All the anger that I felt on that day in 2011 when we finished the elephant ride in Phuket came flooding back as I tried not to judge the two guys that sat on this elephants back in Pai.
Perhaps they were just like the 2011 me I thought.
Maybe they too weren’t aware of the sheer brutality that goes on behind the scenes.
I was taking a video for Snapchat of the confined spaces that the elephants are held in when, with the corner of my eye, I spotted one of the guys that had been sat on the elephants back coming and he was running towards us.
He got a little closer and I could see he was crying.
“Please, please, please don’t sign up for these tours”, he pleaded with us whilst wiping his eyes.
“We come from Argentina and I read that this place treat their elephants like family. They promised us they are kind to the animals and they lied to us. The mahout hit him with a stick and a hook. We didn’t know.”
I assured him that we weren’t there to sign up for any tours and told him that we were there to do some Snapchat video to warn other tourists to stay away from places like this.
He settled down a little and finally caught his breath.
“Can I tell your followers what happened so they don’t make the same mistake as me? I feel too ashamed to show my face so please just let me talk.”
We let him talk and reassured him that his message would reach our 1,000+ followers on Snapchat so something positive might come out of his bad experience.
He vowed to spread the word about this particular camp in Pai, as did we, and we parted ways.
You’ll hear the recording of what he had to say below. The video was filmed in 10-second segments, which is why some of his sentences are cut off.
To do it or not to do it? It’s Your Choice
The purpose of this post isn’t to criticise those that go elephant riding because, at the end of the day, I did it.
Most people that come to Thailand and support these kinds of places do so unknowingly with regards to what goes on behind the scenes so I can only hope to make those people second guess when booking a tour.
I just want to share my experience of riding elephants in Thailand and my thoughts on this particular elephant camp in Pai so that I can help people make a more informed decision.
Because the sad thing is that, as long as there are tourists willing to pay for elephant rides and animal circus acts, this industry will, unfortunately, continue to thrive.
Some might argue that the people who work in this industry are poor and this is their only source of income.
Others might argue that these elephants would have nowhere to go and no one to feed them if these camps were shut down.
These elephants would pose danger to farmers and villagers if they weren’t contained by their handlers and, given the fact that they’ve most likely never had the chance to roam freely, it’s likely they wouldn’t survive in the wild for very long.
And while I can see some logic in these points, as it would be mayhem if 100’s of 10,000-pound animals were suddenly set free to roam freely in cities, towns, and villages, my argument is there HAS to be a better way.
I know I, for one, would be more than willing to support a sanctuary where elephant riding is banned, the elephants have sufficient space to roam and access to enough food and medical supplies etc. to live a healthy life.
It’s just a shame the government wouldn’t get behind an initiative like this. If more and more camps changed their mindset and took a more ethical approach to attracting tourists and treating their elephants, those in the minority would soon have no choice but to follow suit.

Finding a reputable sanctuary (like this one we visited in Chiang Mai) is a better option if you want to see elephants
To Finish:
There are some positive reviews on Tripadvisor for this particular elephant trekking camp in Pai. A guy called Thomas James also reached out to us who stayed with Thom and her elephants 4 years ago and he had some really good things to say about the camp (see comments below).
So note that while we didn’t have any direct interactions with the owners of this company and we didn’t stay at the camp, this review is solely based on what we saw and heard from the Argentian guy and what we saw that day.
Maybe that’s unfair to Thom and if we do return to Pai, I feel we should return to the camp and see what goes on behind closed doors and perhaps I’ll have more positive things to say. I hope I’ll have more positive things to say.
But, for now, my recommendation is that if you do want to spend some time with elephants whilst in Thailand, I’d recommend doing your research.
Don’t just choose a random camp. Please do research so that you choose a sanctuary whose ethics are in the right place and read reviews to be sure they practice what they preach.
We visited Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai back in 2013 and, despite watching a very graphic video that depicts the terrible brutality of elephant tourism, it’s still one of our travel highlights.
Very interesting post. My wife and I went elephant riding near Bangkok. From a tourist perspective, it wasn’t exciting, and quite expensive; not worth it. It definitely wasn’t like in the brochures. I believe the animal was treated better than what you describe. I didn’t see any signs of mistreatment, unless giving rides to 3 people (me, my wife and the “pilot”), and a wooden frame, qualifies. And, I accept that it might. That’s a lot of weight, even though it is a very big and powerful animal.
I also remember thinking how this animal could toss us and stomp us to death at any time. It gave me some respect of the animal, and I didn’t do anything that might anger it. I kept my feet in the seat structure, in case touching the animal might annoy it. Being fearful of my ride did not add to the enjoyment.
We gave some money that hopefully would go toward the elephant’s upkeep. That’s what the pilot told us, and he seemed a like a nice man, but how can anyone know what goes on behind the scenes. For me, it was good to do once, and I hope the animal I rode is treated humanely, but I don’t see doing it again, and wouldn’t have done it the 1st time if I had any idea the animals were abused.
I think it’s also important to remember that the poverty in Thailand is extreme. There were so many people begging on the streets, with all kinds of visible suffering. They have few opportunities to make money. This doesn’t excuse abuse of any kind, but it does factor into the balance of the people’s welfare and the animals.
Is there an acceptable way to give elephant rides? I’m sure people’s thoughts will cover the full range, and in the end, it’s a personal choice. If people do decide to ride an elephant, I hope this posts helps them find better places than this one.
Hey Bob,
You had a similar experience to mine by the sounds of it and like you, I wouldn’t have done it had I known the real terror that goes on behind the scenes. I too hope that the money we paid went to help the elephants in some way.
It’s wishful thinking on our part I would think but we can only hope that was the case!
I understand the link between this industry and poverty but honestly, much like I said in the post, there has to be a better way.
The camps need to take a more ethical approach to what they’re doing.
The demand for elephant rides is decreasing as more people are becoming aware so let’s hope that the new wave of tourists will create a demand for elephant sanctuaries where the animals are genuinely looked after. Let’s hope the ‘breaking of spirits’ of baby elephants becomes a thing of the past which will eventually put a stop to this industry altogether.
All we can do is keep educating people to boycott these places and hope that big changes occur in the coming months/years.
Thanks for your contribution Bob 🙂
Why did you create this website to help elephants or for your own bussinees? I see elephants there are happy and have enough food for them.
I wrote this blog to warn people to stay away from a camp that TREATS THEIR ELEPHANTS BADLY. They are NOT HAPPY elephants, no matter how much people try to disguise it.
Hello Florence,
I’m very upset about reading your article. Your review is based on a statement of one guy and your judgment without trying to find out a bit more information about my camp. You didn’t try to speak to me or to any foreign volunteers, who come to help me and stay here for couple of weeks or longer. How much time have you actually spend here?
I generally agree with you that in most of Thailand the elephants are being exploited and mistreated and I’m sorry for your bad experience in Phuket, but that is NOT in my case. We offer riding WITHOUT seat which doesn’t harm the elephants in any way and we promote walking with them instead of riding, and bathing in the river. My elephants have been born in my camp and I have been training them myself, the same way you would train your dog. No beating or torture.
The mahouts have to control the elephants as they are very large animals, so they carry wooden sticks with hooks. The elephants skin is about 3cm thick, so light hit with stick doesn’t harm them. The hook is there for a case of emergency. I can guarantee that happens very rarely, but we also have to think of a safety of our customers. Any mahout who had treated my elephants cruelly has been punished or fired if happened repeatedly.
My elephants are being taken for walks and to the river with or without tourists and after 5 p.m. they are taken to the mountains, where they stay in the jungle for the night. They don’t stay in the pens all day long. You said they are chained, but I don’t chain them in the pen, as you can see in the video of yours. Western people have domesticated horses, keeping them in a stables with very little space and that’s ok with you? And yes the mahout is pulling the ear, but not in a harmful way. Would you say that pulling a dog on a leash is an animal cruelty? Thai people have domesticated elephants for centuries, so please don’t judge my culture, because I’m not judging yours. I hope that the problem of elephants extinction will be solve very soon, but the main problem is deforestation and I really do hope that other camps will learn how to look after the elephants well and stop torturing them. My elephants are my family and I treat them that way.
You are more than welcome to come and stay in my camp to see for yourself.
Regards
Thom, the Owner
I saw the elephants as well and it’s obvious why this post has been written! To raise awareness to people who have no idea how terribly these elephants are treated. We saw them chained to the ground with barely a foot in length of movement – imaging being changed by your ankle to the ground not being able to move walk or sit for hoursdays weeks years!!!
These elephants are brutally treated into submission through fear and voiokent methods until they are so broken in sport that the loose all courage and will power..
it is a cruel industry to use these magnificent creatures our entertainment
I’m still haunted by my photos of me on top of the elephants with my cousin in Cambodia. 🙁 We meant well and didn’t know the true brutality of what goes on, I should really write about that too but I do think there is a huge global awakening happening about this and more and more people are boycotting elephant riding.
The more articles out there about it, the better Anthony so do write about it when you get the time.
Hope you’re keeping well 🙂
Never ridden an elephant before, but with warnings such as these, I don’t think I ever will!
That’s good to hear Ray 🙂
I love elephants and really can’t stand it when innocent animals have to go through this kind of harsh treatment, i would be just glad to look at them and feed them their favorite food.
Hello Florence,
I’m very upset about reading your article. Your review is based on a statement of one guy and your judgment without trying to find out a bit more information about my camp. You didn’t try to speak to me or to any foreign volunteers, who come to help me and stay here for couple of weeks or longer. How much time have you actually spend here?
I generally agree with you that in most of Thailand the elephants are being exploited and mistreated and I’m sorry for your bad experience in Phuket, but that is NOT in my case. We offer riding WITHOUT seat which doesn’t harm the elephants in any way and we promote walking with them instead of riding, and bathing in the river. My elephants have been born in my camp and I have been training them myself, the same way you would train your dog. No beating or torture.
The mahouts have to control the elephants as they are very large animals, so they carry wooden sticks with hooks. The elephants skin is about 3cm thick, so light hit with stick doesn’t harm them. The hook is there for a case of emergency. I can guarantee that happens very rarely, but we also have to think of a safety of our customers. Any mahout who had treated my elephants cruelly has been punished or fired if happened repeatedly.
My elephants are being taken for walks and to the river with or without tourists and after 5 p.m. they are taken to the mountains, where they stay in the jungle for the night. They don’t stay in the pens all day long. You said they are chained, but I don’t chain them in the pen, as you can see in the video of yours. Western people have domesticated horses, keeping them in a stables with very little space and that’s ok with you? And yes the mahout is pulling the ear, but not in a harmful way. Would you say that pulling a dog on a leash is an animal cruelty? Thai people have domesticated elephants for centuries, so please don’t judge my culture, because I’m not judging yours. I hope that the problem of elephants extinction will be solve very soon, but the main problem is deforestation and I really do hope that other camps will learn how to look after the elephants well and stop torturing them. My elephants are my family and I treat them that way.
You are more than welcome to come and stay in my camp to see for yourself.
Regards
Thom, the Owner
Hi Thom, I’m sorry you’re upset to read my article on your camp in Pai.
Yes, my review was based on the cruelty I saw in a short time and on the experience of one guy who did spend a day at your camp. He was crying and really upset that the elephants were treated badly whilst taking him and his friend on a ride.
But my review was also based on some research I did on your camp. Some of the views I’ve seen from people that have paid to visit your camp include words like “Cruel” “Animal Abuse” and “Horrific”. These are from Tripadvisor and have been left by tourists. So I’m clearly not the only person that thinks what you’re doing is wrong.
Here’s just a snippet of what a girl had to say;
“While riding the elephants the first thing I noticed was the machete on the back of a bamboo stick the trainer was carrying. He used it to stab, cut and club the elephant. There we cuts on top of the elephant and he was bleeding. ”
Yes, I did have a bad experience in Phuket, but I also had a really good experience at an elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai. Was your camp (from what I saw) as bad as the one in Phuket, no. But was it anywhere close to the place in Chiang Mai, definitely NOT.
If you think that riding them without a seat is ok and painless, why would you promote walking then? It doesn’t really make sense.
And I also find it hard to believe that ‘hooks’ and sticks are used only in an emergency. The guy I spoke with (and I have a video of him saying this) said that the mahout used the hook whilst he was on the elephant. There was no emergency and, in his opinion, no need to inflict physical harm on the animal.
The elephants WERE chained when I was there. I can send you pictures if you’d like to see them? They were in pens with NO SPACE to move, to turn around or to sit down. One elephant was rocking back and forth and was visibly shaken. I also have a video of that.
There are problems across the world with horses, dogs, goats, pigs and many other animals and it’s definitely not ok. I’m not judging your culture in any way but whether they are born in captivity or stolen from the wild, elephants must be emotionally and mentally broken before people can climb onto their backs. And we know what that entails. That is NOT the case when training a dog so your comparison is totally unfounded.
I understand that they’ve been your family for years and you need funding to survive and look after them, but taking a different approach would help the elephants, your family and your reputation more.
I still don’t see any cruelty in your video and you are not really responding to what I have written. I wouldn’t really call reading through a tripadvisor a research and you don’t have to quote reviews as I have read them. Some of them are talking about the opposite camp as I found out, not about mine. I have also read the good ones, which are majority. The mahout may carry machete with them for cutting grass. Even in the worst camps, I haven’t seen anyone using machete to cut the elephant, that’s just ridiculous. And if they would, my elephants would have a visible scars from that, which they don’t, because when elephant skin heals it stays pink.
I hope that the shaken Argentinian tourist has reported the animal abuse to me, but I don’t recall that particular incident. Also all the other people writing review should have reported it to me. Many of them had, but many haven’t. If he had I could have punished the mahout. For the record, I have fired one of my mahouts yesterday for repeated abuse of my elephant.
You don’t have to send me your pictures, they are not chained, I can see it in your video. And if I had chained them sometimes I had a good reason for it.
I’m not talking about problems of abusing dogs and horses, I’m talking about standard ways of looking after them, like horses being kept in stables, when they are not ridden or leading a dog on a leash or chain them. So do you call it animal abuse? Write an article about it! You have also being pulled by husky sled in Bulgaria. I don’t think it’s animal abuse, they are trained to do that for tourists or for entertainment of their owners, the same way my elephants are trained for riding. But why don’t YOU call it animal abuse? Putting weights on 3 months old puppies so they get used to it? I know what your reply to that will be. That they enjoy to do that. My elephants enjoy being in the water with tourists. Also most of those dogs are chained and kept in cages, when they don’t work. I have seen it.
My elephants are kept in a pen, they do have a space to turn around and elephants don’t naturally sit down. The elephants name on your video is TutDao and she moves like that all the time, even if she’s in the jungle. The other elephant doesn’t do that, they are not stressed. When elephants are stress they sway around, different move than she does. And as I said they are kept in a jungle after 5p.m. every night and they get to spend a free time on the river side during the day. I also have an old elephant kept on a big farm far away from tourists. I recently rescued her from south of Thailand to stay safe with me, while she’s living her last years. But you clearly don’t know any of those things because you have done NO research around my camp.
Not all the elephants are trained by breaking spirits. I have 4th generation of domesticated elephants born in captivity when there’s no need for that. There are many new ways how to train them and I have trained my elephants by rewards of fruit and such. You can read about the new methods in the article below. And at last, we are promoting walking with elephants instead of riding just simply because we prefer them to work a bit less than they would have to.
Can you please explain me why don’t you write an article about the camp in Phuket or all the other camps where they use the seats and getting beaten to bleeding or about the elephants still working hard on the farms? Or why don’t you focus on fighting the real existential problems of those animals?
So if you actually want to do some research about my camp and elephants, my offer still stands. You are welcome to stay here for a week or so.
Have a good day. http://www.elephantexperts.org/training.html
Training and handling
elephantexperts.org
Nice post.Elephants or any other animal,they are not for humans fun.Love them treat them like humans.All animals deserve respect and freedom.Thanks for sharing this blog.Keep sharing.
I think you have made some shocking assumptions based on a few minutes’ footage taken from the side of the road and some trip advisor reviews (which at any time and about any place are quite often based on ignorance not facts). Any kind of journalist/blogger owes it not only to their readership but to the person they are defaming to actually take the time to research thoroughly and know what they are talking about. You certainly owed Thom the common decency to engage with her; I know for a fact she would have settled a lot of your fears. It is very easy for us westerners to apply western standards to a culture we know very little about.
I stayed with Thom and her elephants four years ago. I wanted to be as involved as I could. Every morning we woke at sunrise and trekked into the jungle to meet the elephants, who live in a vast open space around which there are boarders for a very good reason: poachers. Our Manout explained to us very carefully that without the protection given by people like Thom, these elephants would be at great risk of being poached.
Perhaps Thom caters to western tourism and perhaps you see something innately untrustworthy about that; but the money she raises by doing so offers these elephants protection. And I can promise you those elephants were happy and well provided for. I bathed them every day, I played with them every day, I went into fields of elephant grass with a machete everyday to cut food for them, and every evening we trekked back into the jungle to their home. I didn’t for one second see any elephant being coerced into doing something it wasn’t happy to do. The respect they were afforded was almost religious. Have you ever tried walking an elephant on a lead? No; they use sticks in the same way we use leads on dogs. Even the RSPCA doesn’t have an issue with using leads to train dogs. Having worked with elephants, I can assure you I don’t have enough strength in me to hit an elephant with a stick hard enough for it to even bat an eyelid! Thom doesn’t just cater to western tourism; she educates people on the lives of elephants in Thailand and if you had bothered to engage with her you might have learnt this.
What is the alternative you propose for these elephants? Perhaps without Thom they would end up at the dismal elephant camp across the street (unfortunately so close to Thom’s that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if ignorant trip advisor reviewers were reviewing the wrong place).
I commend your intentions, but your assertions are based on so little information. I have worked with animals my entire life, and there isn’t a single thing you can say that will change my mind about Thom’s love for her animals, and the happy life and safety they enjoy because of her.
Hey Thomas,
I’m really glad to hear some positives about Thom’s place. However, I can’t ignore what I experienced that day at the camp. Even though I didn’t spend a lot of time there or I didn’t pay to ride elephants at Thom’s, I did witness cruelty from the short time that I observed the elephants at the camp. And the reactions of the guys that thought they were doing good by paying to spend time with and ride the elephants still haunts me. They paid money thinking that they were helping and instead were subjected to an elephant ride where their elephant was constantly hit with a spike and mistreated. That’s enough for me not to advise people to visit this place.
I didn’t have much correspondence with Thom here as we chatted over on Facebook about it and we came to the conclusion that although she may be doing better than other camps are (and I don’t deny that she is), we agreed to disagree on just how much better she’s actually doing. Unfortunately, I don’t know what the alternative is and I don’t have the answer that will ensure the elephants that have been broken and kept in captivity to entertain Western tourists enjoy a better life. Letting them roam free obviously isn’t the answer but allowing people to ride on them and mishandle them certainly isn’t either.
I’m glad you had such a great experience but what I saw that day was in total contrast to what you’ve described your experience to be like. I can’t ignore what I saw and heard from those guys that day. I have visited other camps such as Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai where elephants are kept in captivity for their protection but they’re well looked after and what I saw from Thom’s was a stark contrast.
Maybe I owe it to Thom to return and learn more about what she’s doing and perhaps I will. But until I have proof that her elephants aren’t mistreated, I can’t recommend the camp to anyone and I’ve written this review based on my experience, albeit a short one.
Thanks for your contribution Thomas and I’m happy to hear that you had a great experience there. Let’s hope more people have an experience that’s similar to yours rather than mine.
Thanks for your reply, Florence.
I think it would be amazing if you could spend some time with Thom and speak with her about the situation. I remember her to be massively informative, knowledgable and above all open to discussion about everything (I had many questions about the welfare of elephants in SE Asia!)
I can see that she is open to this; my advice would be to stay (if you can) a few days and really experience what goes on behind the scenes – nothing was hidden from us, we were involved in looking after the elephants 24hrs a day and learnt so much. Perhaps the good that could come from this would be your helping each other to understand the differing perspectives between locals and westerners!
I would be very interested to read your follow up report, and I really hope that you have a positive experience.
Best,
Tom
That would be great Tom and I’ll definitely get in touch with Thom when I’m in Pai again and we can organise something.
In the meantime, I’ll edit the post to say that my review was based on my experience and that you and others have had a lot more positive things to say so that people can get both perspectives and make up their own minds based on that.
I’ll have an update here if I get to stay with Thom so I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks again for your contribution. 🙂
Florence
Brilliant! Thanks Florence. Look forward to hearing more, and hope you enjoy your time in Pai. Tom
Sigh…
I certainly hope all this disgust applies to humans riding horses, too. Like elephants, horses have been ridden by humans for thousands of years. There are many stables and individuals that mistreat horses. Do you advise everyone to stop riding horses because that fact? Probably not.
How about directing all this angst at individual owners that haven been proven to mistreat their animals instead of making blanket statements about entire ways of life?