Lodi native student works with elephants in Thailand

This winter, Kennedy Herbsleb, 21, of Lodi, spent two weeks in Thailand helping animals and learning hands-on what it’s like to be a veterinarian.

Traveling with study-abroad organization Loop Abroad, Kennedy was selected as part of a small team that volunteered giving care at a dog shelter and spent a week working directly with rescued elephants at an elephant sanctuary.

The Veterinary Service program brings students to Thailand for two weeks to volunteer alongside veterinarians from the US and Thailand. For one week, Kennedy and her team volunteered at an elephant sanctuary outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand to work with the giant animals and learn about animal rescue and conservation on a larger scale.

The elephants at the sanctuary have been rescued from trekking, logging or forced breeding programs. Many of them had been abused and suffer from chronic injuries or blindness. At the elephant sanctuary, they are cared for by volunteers from around the world.

Kennedy fed and cared for elephants, as well as learn about their diagnoses alongside an elephant vet. The sanctuary is also home to over 1,000 animals, including cats, dogs, water buffalo, horses and cows, and is sustained in huge part by the work of weekly volunteers such as Kennedy.

For the other week, Kennedy volunteered at a dog rescue clinic in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The shelter is home to dogs who have been abandoned, beaten or abused.

While she studied under the veterinarians leading her group, Kennedy and her team made a difference in the lives of these dogs.

By providing check-ups and cleanings, treating ear and eye problems, taking and testing blood, administering vaccines, treating wounds and helping with sterilization surgeries, the students were able to help support the health and well-being of these dogs.

By following a study abroad model instead of a voluntourism model, Loop focuses on educating its students so that they can contribute and serve in meaningful ways. It also works with locally run animal welfare organizations so that students contribute to long-term improvement on the ground in the countries they visit.

With programs in Thailand, South Africa, Australia, and the Amazon and Galapagos, Loop Abroad is able to support animal welfare and conservation around the world because of its students and their dedication to helping animals in need.

The program’s Managing Director Jane Stine says, “Our students are some of the most amazing people I have ever met. They are kind, compassionate, dedicated, hard-working individuals who have big goals and want to make a big impact. It’s amazing to see how eager they are to learn and challenge themselves. Over the last nine years, we’ve seen them go on to do some wonderful things.”

Loop Abroad has animal science, marine biology and veterinary programs for students and young adults age 14 to 30, and offers financial aid and fundraising help. Programs range from two weeks in summer to a full semester abroad, and college credit is available.

Interested participants can inquire or apply at www.LoopAbroad.com. Admission to veterinary programs is selective and Kennedy was selected based on her transcript, admissions essay, and professional references.

Of her trip, Kennedy says, “While getting to experience a new and amazing culture, I learned so much! Being in the dog clinic and doing rounds with the elephant veterinarian really helped me decide what I wanted my future to look like. Scrubbing in and monitoring anesthesia during spay and neuters of dogs and cats was the highlight of my first week. It was so awesome to work hands-on and be so close to the elephants also.”

Kennedy is a junior at University of Wisconsin — Platteville, majoring in Animal Science.

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Thailand: man dies of elephant stampede

(MENAFN) A mahout was reportedly stumped to death by an elephant he took case of in central Thailand's Sukhothai Province.

Police declared that the man, aged 38, has died on Saturday near an elephant sanctuary belonging to him.

He was reportedly discovered lying his face down with injuries along his body in a corn field.

Pachyderm was also discovered close to the body.

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Classical piano soothes old elephants at Thai sanctuary

KANCHANABURI, Thailand: Lam Duan, a 65-year-old, blind Thai elephant is enjoying her lunch, listening to Silent Night being played on a piano.

For eight years, pachyderms like Lam Duan - old, overworked and sometimes disabled - have been rehabilitated with music at Elephants World, a retirement sanctuary for the animals in the western Thai province of Kanchanaburi.

Almost 80 percent of about 3,000 elephants at tourist venues in Thailand, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal and Sri Lanka, endure poor living conditions and diets and are overworked, according to the animal welfare group World Animal Protection.

The animals at Elephants World get good food and treatment for their physical ailments, but the music is an extra, special treat they appear to love.

Several times a week, British classical pianist Paul Barton, 57, sets up a piano against a backdrop of forested slopes and plays for his four-legged friends.

“Maybe some of these blind elephants get a little bit of comfort from hearing pieces of soothing classical music occasionally,” says Barton, who studied at London’s Royal Academy of Arts.

Lam Duan approached Barton as he began to play and she appeared to calm down and focus on the music.

At another music session, several elephants seemed to move their heads and move about in front of the piano as the notes flowed.

The owner of the sanctuary, Samart Prasithpol, 44, said the music seemed to provide the elephants with some special comfort.

“We work here to rehabilitate the elephants physically,” Smart told Reuters.

“The use of music has been useful in rehabilitating their soul,” he said.

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UK man performs piano for previous elephants in Thailand sanctuary: Video

A British pianist, living in Thailand, has taken his craft to entirely new
heights.

Somewhere, deep in the jungle, 57-year-old Paul Barton has dragged his
piano into a clearing, on the banks of the River Kwai, to play music for old,
injured and disabled elephants.

The self-taught pianist met his larger than life audience during a visit to an
elephant sanctuary with his wife in 2011.

“I wondered if these old elephants might like to listen to some slow
classical music when I arrived, so I asked if I could bring my piano along
and they allowed it,” Mr Barton said.

Roping in a bunch of mates to help him load his upright piano onto the
back of a ute, Mr Barton drove it up the mountain and into the middle of
the Elephants World sanctuary.

Untethered and free to wander and graze as they please, elephants would
surround Mr Barton and his piano during each visit, fascinated by the
calming sounds of Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and Debussy.

Mr Barton uploads videos of his jungle concerts to his YouTube channel,
showing baby elephants who squeak and bark along to the music, and
older elephants that flap their ears and sway as the he plays.

“It’s said elephants memorise your scent and will think of you as a friend
the next time you’re together,” he said.

“When I play music to elephants I always feel calm and happy.”

Mr Barton will calm the elephants, welcoming him to his
piano before sitting down to play for them. Picture: YouTube

According to Mr Barton, it’s a feeling most of the sanctuary’s residents
haven’t felt in a long time.

Many of the elephants ended up there after falling victim to ivory hunters,
while others were left injured, abused or homeless after a lifetime working
for humans on deforestation sites across Thailand.

Mr Barton said the first time he played his piano in the jungle, a blind
elephant called Pla-Ra stopped eating his breakfast and stood completely
still “listening to the music with grass protruding from his mouth”.
Pla-Ra had come to the sanctuary after his previous owner removed and
sold his tusks.

“A bad infection set in and he was often in pain from the holes where his
tusks had been cruelly removed,” Mr Barton said.

“I like to think that the soothing music gave him some comfort in the
darkness.”

Sadly, Pla-Ra didn’t survive the infection.

“I became very close to Pla-Ra and I was devastated when he died,” he
said.

I’m calling it: This story will be snatched up and made into an Oscarwinning
feature film, starring the kind old Morgan Freeman, before you
can say “pachyderm”.

Mr Barton says he has devloped a deep affection for the
animals at Elephants World sanctuary. Picture: YouTube

Mr Barton chooses particular songs he thinks each elephant will like.
It must work because he has been doing it for years and has some
seriously big fans.

“Elephants are emotional animals, like us, and I’m just following my
instincts to play music for them,” he said.

“All I can do is hope that the work we do can make the lives of these
rescued elephants a little bit better.”

Mr Barton said sometimes the elephants even drape their trunks over the
piano to “explore the keys for themselves”.

“I hope that music like this will be part of a process of rehabilitation for
elephants that have had stressful lives,” he said.

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Biology major worked with elephants in Thailand

Deanna Yates, a junior biology major, spent two weeks in Thailand during the summer helping animals and learning hands-on what it’s like to be a veterinarian. Traveling with study-abroad organization Loop Abroad, Yates was selected as part of a small team that volunteered giving care at a dog shelter and spent a week working directly with rescued elephants at an elephant sanctuary.

The Veterinary Service program brings students to Thailand for two weeks to volunteer alongside veterinarians from the U.S. and Thailand. Yates and her team volunteered at the Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand to work hands-on with the giant animals and learn about animal rescue and conservation on a larger scale. The Elephant Nature Park is home to over 60 elephants who have been rescued from trekking, logging, or forced breeding programs. Many of them had been abused and suffer from chronic injuries or blindness.

Yates said, “My favorite part of Elephant Nature Park was acknowledging and understanding their hands-off approach with the elephants. Observing the elephants from a distance is a better experience than forcing the elephants to do things that they don’t want to do, such as the cruel treatment of elephant rides and pictures!”

For the other week, she volunteered at the Animal Rescue Kingdom dog shelter and helped to run Loop Abroad’s Dog Rescue Clinic in Chiang Mai, Thailand. By providing check-ups and cleanings, diagnosing and treating ear and eye problems, taking and testing blood, administering vaccines, cleaning and treating wounds, and helping with sterilization surgeries, the students were able to help support the health and well-being of these dogs.

By following a study abroad model instead of a voluntourism model, Loop focuses on educating its students so that they can contribute and serve in meaningful ways. Loop Abroad has animal science, marine biology, and veterinary programs for students and young adults in several countries and offers financial aid and fundraising help. Programs range from two weeks in summer to a full semester abroad, and college credit is available.

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Former Radnor resident discovers a passion to save elephants in Thailand

Flora Sherry credits childhood trips, including a visit to Nepal while in high school, with fueling her wanderlust.

The 2002 Radnor High School graduate is now an expat based in Thailand, where she is teaching English and volunteering at Elephant Nature Park, a reserve for rescued elephants, every chance she gets.

“My family also instilled the love to travel and exploring other cultures,” Sherry said.

A brother, Keating Sherry, was working in China and suggested that Sherry apply for a job there. In 2014 she was hired to teach English to children from three to 18 in Shenzhen near Hong Kong.

From there she vacationed in northern Thailand, “and I fell in love with an elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai,” Sherry said. “And it’s a place where they rescue elephants and all types of animals.” She decided to move to Thailand. Back in China she saw a posting for a volunteer teacher in a village in Thailand and applied for it. That led to a job at an international school in Chiang Mai. She will be starting a new job at a bilingual school in that town in August. Sherry is certified in elementary and special education and also in teaching English as a foreign language. she holds an undergraduate degree from Eastern University and took master’s courses at Cabrini University to do her student teaching.

“I really enjoy teaching,” said Sherry. “I find that children are children, no matter where you go. I love working with kids, getting them to explore and learn new things. Teaching opens the window where I can live in the world. It gives me a lot of opportunities.”

“I think that people always say that it’s adventurous (to live overseas),” said Sherry. “For me it’s just figuring out what I want to do. I don’t consider myself to be brave. I just wanted to live abroad.”

“The food is great. There’s curries and noddle dishes there’s plenty of noodle dishes,” she said about Thailand. “Anything you want, you can find it in Chiang Mai.” Western dishes are also available.

“You always have to be careful (about contamination) but for the most part it’s pretty safe in the main cities,” she said. “I get smoothies and I don’t worry about ice at all. You can’t drink the water there but you can brush your teeth with the water.”


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MSU student travels to Thailand to work with elephants

This summer, Katherine Bederka, 20, of Northville spent two weeks in Thailand helping animals and learning hands-on what it’s like to be a veterinarian. Traveling with study-abroad organization Loop Abroad, Bederka was selected as part of a small team that volunteered giving care at a dog shelter and spent a week working directly with rescued elephants at an elephant sanctuary.

The veterinary service program brings students to Thailand for two weeks to volunteer alongside veterinarians from the U.S. and Thailand. For one week, Bederka and her team volunteered at the Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand to work hands-on with the giant animals and learn about animal rescue and conservation on a larger scale. The Elephant Nature Park is home to more than 60 elephants who have been rescued from trekking, logging or forced breeding programs. Many of them had been abused and suffer from chronic injuries or blindness. At the Elephant Nature Park, they are cared for by volunteers from all over the world. Bederka helped to feed and care for elephants, as well as learn about their diagnoses alongside an elephant vet. The Elephant Nature Park is also home to more than 1,000 other animals, including cats, dogs, water buffalo, horses and cows and is sustained in huge part by the work of weekly volunteers.

For the other week, Bederka volunteered at the Animal Rescue Kingdom dog shelter and helped to run Loop Abroad’s Dog Rescue Clinic in Chiang Mai, Thailand. These shelters are home to more than 200 dogs who have been rescued after being abandoned, beaten or abused. While the dogs can be adopted, any who aren’t will be cared for by the shelters for their whole lives.

While she studied under the veterinarians leading her group, Bederka and her team made a difference in the lives of these dogs. By providing check-ups and cleanings, diagnosing and treating ear and eye problems, taking and testing blood, administering vaccines, cleaning and treating wounds and helping with sterilization surgeries, the students were able to help support the health and well-being of these dogs.


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One-tusk elephant strays into village and plays in water in Bung Kan

Villagers at a village in Bung Konglong district of Bung Kan province panicked after a wild one-tusk elephant strayed into their village and played in water in the Nong Bua Daeng swamp.

They immediately alerted local authorities and they’re instructed to keep off the elephant for safety precaution.

According to the villagers, the elephant played in water in the swamp about 100 metres from the shore.

Park officials from the Phu Wua wildlife sanctuary arrived in the village and said it is a bull elephant.

It might stray from its herd in the wildlife sanctuary.

After watching the elephant playing in water for almost an hour, it walked slowly back to shore passing the rice field and disappearing in the woods towards the wildlife sanctuary.

Park officials said the sanctuary is home to about 50 wild elephants. The sanctuary has 110,000 rai covering Bung Kan, Bung Kla, Seka, and Bung Konglong districts of Bung Kan.

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Seven elephants successfully rescued from a pond

With the help of a backhoe from the highways office of Chachoengsao, seven elephants were successfully rescued from a pond in Bang Ang Ta Poeng after they fell into the pond since about 2 am on Sunday(Nov 12).

Mr Decha Nilvichien, chief of Khao Ang Ruenai wildlife sanctuary, said that the backhoe which arrived at Bang Ang Ta Poeng village at about 8 am dug up the soil to form a slope leading to the pond allowing the trapped elephants to walk out of the pond.

He said that two elephants firstly walked out from the pond, then followed by one elephant after another until all the animals were out of danger at about 8.40 am.

However, Mr Decha said a team of forest rangers was sent to follow the herd into the jungle toward Ban Noen Krabok in Tha Takiab district of Chachoengsao.

The seven elephants, including two babies, accidentally fell into the pond as they were scouring for food in a rubber plantation in Ban Ang Ta Poeng. They were unable to get out because the embankment of the pond is steep and slippery.

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Elephant rescue mission gaining ground

An elephant from Phuket is at the top of Jack Lanting’s rescue list.

Every day, shack led by chains, Gow is forced to carry people in the heat. Years of this treatment has caused her to adopt a heavy sway but Gow won’t have to live like this for much longer.

Gow is the first elephant Jack plans to save when he opens his $1.8 mil lion elephant sanctuary in
Thai land next year. ‘‘She is number one,’’ Jack said. ‘‘I’ve promised her we are going to rescue her one day.’

Jack’s mum, Viv Lanting, said there were a lot of elephants that needed help but with Gow there was a special connection. ‘‘With her, we go up and just touch her trunk to show her love, because she sways so heavily. Normally that would actually stop them from swaying but we have only been able to halve it with her.’’

Jack was 8 when he went to Thailand for the first time.

He is now 16 and has been back to Thailand nine more times, has saved two elephants and helped
rescue three others.

He is a year 12 student at St John’s College in Hamilton and at the end of the year he plans to leave
school and open his own elephant sanctuary.

The sanctuary will be named Kwan Jai, after the first elephant Jack raised funds to rescue.
A location is yet to be confirmed but Jack has been looking at areas in central Thailand.
All going to plan, building will start in June or July next year.

‘‘Wherever we go, it’s got to be huge. We’ve been looking at 2000 acres or bigger,’’ Jack said.
‘‘We need some thing with a river and we’re hoping to find some thing that’s be tween the river and national park, so that we can create a green corridor for the wild elephants to walk between.
‘‘It’s not just a sanctuary, it’s a conservation project that’s concerned with perma
culture and reforestation,’’ Jack said.

Jack has already been promised his first elephant for the sanctuary – Sook Sai, an elephant he helped rescue in 2015.

Sook Sai now lives at Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand, an elephant rescue and rehabilitation centre founded by Thai woman Lek Chailert.

Jack first knew he wanted to start his own sanctuary after an under cover mission six years ago. ‘‘We saw this one elephant, Lily. ‘‘She was on the beach and she had her name etched into her skin, on her forehead, with sharpened sticks. She and her mahout were high. She was 3 and she should have been a lot more boisterous than what she was, but she was just standing there because of the drugs she’d been given.’’ Jack launches his fund-raising scheme to day and hopes to raise $1.8m through his website and grants

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SKAL Krabi announces fundraiser to aid establishment of elephant sanctuary

SKAL Krabi announces fundraiser to aid establishment of elephant sanctuary
SKAL Krabi today announced that it has chosen to fully support the Krabi Elephant Sanctuary project founded by Mr Henrik Enevoldsen, who is a passionate local focused on creating a safe haven for Thailand’s mistreated elephants, and hopes to get support to rescue the burdened creatures.

SKAL is an international organisation for tourism professionals with branches across the globe.

To open the sanctuary, Mr Enevoldsen needs B35 million, and says he hopes to have the first 20mn before November, so he can buy the piece of land he has had put on hold and will hopefully become the foundation for a safe haven for abused elephants.

The next 15 million will go to building facilities for the elephants, which he says he hopes to start building around February 2018.

Mr Enevoldsen has received the backing of prominent elephant care activist Sangduen “Lek” Chailert, founder of the Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary and rescue centre for elephants in Mae Taeng District, Chiang Mai.

In a video in both English and Thai, released by Skal Krabi Ms Chailert urges people to support Mr Enevoldsen in his endeavour to found a sanctuary in Krabi similar to hers.

SKAL Krabi has decided to make this project our charity of choice and we are now organizing our first charity event in full support of Henrik and this amazing project.

To make the event a success and to raise as much money as we can for Henrik, we are asking for support from the community and local businesses by providing prizes and items for the inaugural SKAL Krabi Elephant Sanctuary Auction Fundraiser.

The event will be held at the new Mountain View Complex in Ao Nang, Krabi on Wednesday, November 29, 2017.

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Death of an elephant causes anxiety among villagers at Khao Kluaymai village

Residents living in a village next to Khao Ang Rue Nai wildlife sanctuary are worried that they will be blamed for the recent death of a bull elephant, suspected of being electrocuted, and they are demanding concerned authorities to quickly find out the actual cause of the jumbo’s demise.

The bull elephant, aged about 20 and weighed about 3 tonnes, was found dead in a sugarcane plantation close to the wildlife sanctuary in Khao Kluaymai village, Tambon Klong Tapao, Tha Takiab district of Chachoengsao on July 18. Its trunk got entangled with a barbed wire of a fence which was connected to a 12-volt car battery.

The barbed wire fence was built around the sugarcane plantation and it was connected to a car battery as a deterrent against trespassing by elephants in search of food.

A team of Thai PBS reporter and cameramen visited Khao Kluaymai village on July 21 to talk to the villagers about how they felt about the elephant’s death and how the animal died.

Mr Chamnien Boonruang, the village’s assistant headman, said that no one in the village had wanted an elephant to die in their village and never before that an elephant was killed by electricity generated from a car battery.

He said that several villagers who have pineapple or sugarcane plantations usually connected their barbed wire with car batteries just to scare away elephants search for food because they knew that it was impossible to prevent the animals from foraging for food in their plantations.

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Olympic champ Tara has fun with elephants on her Thailand honeymoon

Olympic medallist figure-skater Tara Lipinski, who got married to TV producer Todd Kapostasy last week, is having a ball in Thailand on her honeymoon. She seems to have especially enjoyed her trip to the elephant sanctuary. She posted a series of pictures on Instagram from the Maldives to Thailand.

Recently, she posted this picture and captioned it: “Goodnight from Thailand! What an amazing day at the elephant sanctuary.

A place that really cares about the health and endurance of elephants. Oh and happy 4th of July! One of my favourite holidays.

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Celebrities are flocking to a new elephant sanctuary in Thailand

For animal lovers, finding travel experiences that provide ethical ways of interacting with animals poses a problem. Many of the activities that were once thought to be harmless fun can actually be harmful to the animals.

A new elephant sanctuary in Thailand might offer a solution.

Phuket Elephant Sanctuary is a 30-acre park and the first shelter of its kind in the city that gives elephants that have worked in entertainment or other forms of labor the chance to retire. They can roam the grounds freely during the day and rest in large shelters at night, The Independent reported.

Several celebrities, including the band Coldplay and Aaron Paul of “Breaking Bad,” have made visits to the park, drawn in by its ethical practices.

British philanthropist and fashion executive, Louise Rogerson, started the sanctuary in 2015 after volunteering for several years with elephant projects in Thailand, according to the sanctuary’s website.

The first animals – including a 60-year-old female originally from a logging camp – arrived in August 2016, a according to The Phuket News. The sanctuary opened to visitors later that year.

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