Our second week in Hua Hin started with a trip to Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT). It is an animal rescue located about 1.5 hours from Hi Hin. It was founded in 2001 by Edwin Wiek with the help of the local people from Petchaburi province. The mission of WFFT is to rescue and rehabilitate captive wild animals and provide high-quality care and a safe environment for them to live for the rest of their lives in a setting as close to nature as possible. The animals at WFFT are all animals who have been unprotected and abused.
In Thailand, elephants are classed as “livestock”/working animals and can be used in the logging, trekking, and tourism industries with no protections to keep them safe. The way to get these enormous animals to cooperate is to beat them and starve them into submission through a process called Phajaaen. It is the process of breaking an elephant’s spirit. This horrible process takes a long time, and it involves capturing and torturing baby elephants. There is a movement to educate tourists about responsible practices, but unfortunately, there is a long way to go to protect these majestic creatures.
Tourists are a big part of the problem in the exploitation of wildlife. It may seem cool to get a selfie riding on or bathing an elephant or posing next to a sleeping tiger, but those things harm the animals. Riding elephants permanently disfigure them. Those sleeping tigers that look so cute in pictures are being drugged. Bathing the elephants is unhygienic and unnatural.
Tours are given to tourists WFFT to raise awareness for the plight of the animals in promoting responsible eco-tourism. Our tour was informative and exciting. We got to see many of the animals being rehabilitated at the rescue. We learned about the inhumane treatment of the animals. It was a sobering experience.
We did have a chance to meet a few of the elephants. Some of the elephants who are not completely traumatized by humans will come to be hand fed. We were told that this isn’t guaranteed. These elephants have an adequate supply of food that is kept away from humans, so if they don’t feel like approaching, they are never forced. We were fortunate the day we visited two older female elephants chose to spend time with us as we offered them fruit. These two elephants are friends who were rescued separately from a trekking business and reunited at WFFT.
WFFT is an NGO (non-governmental organization) that relies on support from other animal protection organizations and individual donations https://www.wfft.org/donate/
The rest of the week was busy. Vicki and I rocked out at Zumba class when we returned from the elephant rescue. Michael and I got a massage and walked along the beach. The kids went to Elate three days during the week. They learned how to make stop-motion animation and went to a spine center to learn about the human body. There was also pickleball!
On Wednesday, the kids have a half day at Elate. Lucas and some older boys went to lunch and a movie at the mall down the street. Henry went swimming. We love that we can give Lucas and Henry more freedom when we travel. We do not feel like we can do that when we are in the U.S.
Dungeons and Dragons is back in session after a break from doing it in Vietnam. It is a real highlight for the kids. Jake, the dungeon master, is amazing. He keeps the kids engaged and excited. Our time in Hua Hin is going by so fast because our schedules are full of wonderful activities.
