December 9, 2024

Today we had a field trip to FOLLOWING GIANTS, an ethical elephant sanctuary on Lanta Island in Thailand. Their motto is "Letting Elephants Lead the Way" and they are one of several former "elephants for entertainment" (ie riding, bathing, feeding, etc.) companies that have reformed their practices to comply with the World Animal Protection organization's guidelines.

The founder Charae "Ray" Sangkaow used to run a company that offered elephant rides to tourists as well as other unethical human-animal contact experiences (washing, feeding, etc.). They now let their 6 elephants (5 females & 1 male) roam free on their 15 acres of forest land.

The kids got to hear Ray's story, observe the elphants - sometimes getting a little close for comfort when the elephants decided to walk past where we were shooting "seed bombs" - a reforestation project that the tourists help out with (see below).

Even though the kids thought there was too much hiking, all in all it was an exciting and educational adventure for all.