Urgent food supplies are already being delivered
STEF’s emergency Covid-19 appeal to Feed Starving Elephants in Southern Thailand has now raised over £1,000 and we have already started to supply owners with food for their elephants. Many elephant owners/mahouts who normally lease their elephant to a tourist park in return for money have now lost that income and have had to take their elephants away because of the parks closing in the lock-down. It costs at least £12 a day to feed one elephant, and many owners (often one family owning a single elephant) simply cannot afford to buy food for themselves or their elephants now that they have no income.
Our volunteers on the ground in Southern Thailand are making sure that the most vulnerable elephants are receiving food. The money donated to our Feed Starving Elephants Appeal is being spent on feed pellets (these are soaked and rolled into large balls, providing elephants with essential vitamins and minerals), on vegetation such as pineapple plants (elephants eat about 150kg of vegetation a day) and, of course, bananas.
Unfortunately, Thailand doesn’t have enough natural forestry to allow all domesticated elephants to roam freely and forage for their food (see domesticated elephants for more information) so providing feed directly to the owners is the best way to ensure that these elephants are fed in the current crisis. Thailand’s elephant parks are unlikely to open again to tourists for many months, so please help us to continue to provide elephant food to those owners who cannot afford to buy it themselves. We are doing all we can to prevent Thai elephants from starving, and all the money raised in this appeal will go directly towards the purchase of elephant food. Please DONATE now. And if you are UK taxpayer, please tick the Gift Aid box to provide an extra 25% on your donation (at no charge to you). Thank you.
