TRUNKS OF THANKS!
Dok Lak and Maree Ladee - Thanks to all of our phenomenal friends around the world, these two beautiful girls will soon be able to call BLES their forever home!
On the 2nd May 2022, I announced that BLES was hoping to rescue and retire two sweet female elephants and you, our incredible supporters, immediately launched into action!
Their story was not one filled with violence or shocking abuse - they were fortunate to have a human family who always tried to provide the best for them. Yes, they worked in tourist camps and yes, they were made to carry tourists on their backs, but in this unbalanced world we live in, where thousands of elephants exist in captivity throughout Thailand, Dok Lak and Mare Ladee had owners who tried to do the best they could, with the very little they had.
The owners actually reached out to BLES at the very beginning of the Covid - 19 Pandemic. We all agreed to put the fundraiser for the girls on hold, until the pandemic had passed, thinking it would only last a few months - not almost three years!!
The owners understood that we were struggling to secure enough funds to care for all the animals in our care and that it would be a huge risk to take on two new elephants, when we were barely able to keep BLES up and running….
As the months rolled by, the owners were forced to travel back to their home village, after the camp they were working in was closed down. They were stuck, with no income, a growing human family to feed and two hungry elephants to provide for. BLES sent money to the owners, whenever we could, to help them purchase food for Dok Lak and Mare Ladee and we maintained a good relationship, constantly having honest and open conversations, about how and when we would be able to rehome the girls to BLES. Even when we told the owners that we were struggling to see a light at the end of the tunnel, the owners refused to give up and insisted that they wanted only the best for their elephants and they knew that the best, was BLES. Despite being approached by other parties and being offered more money, the owners refused to sell the girls to anyone else.
The owners of Dok Lak and Mare Ladee are a lovely family. They struggled to survive, as so many others did around the world, through the pandemic. It was hard for them to see their elephants, standing on short chains, all day and all night, knowing they were bored and sad. Living in a village, surrounded by rice fields and fruit tree plantations, meant that the girls couldn’t be allowed to freely graze, in case they caused damage to the crops and then the owners would be faced with hefty compensation bills…..
Thankfully, now, the owners no longer have to be living with constant stress and financial burden. Because of you, our faithful friends and true elephant lovers from all corners of the globe, BLES has now been able to raise 100% of the funds needed to rescue Dok Lak and Mare Ladee and rehome them to our beautiful sanctuary here in Sukhothai!
Now we have the funds secured, there is a lot to get organised! The actual drive down to where the elephants are takes a total of 16 hours! We need to hire a truck to transport the girls together, because our truck is only big enough to transport one elephant - not two!
We also need to work around several different schedules and on top of that - it is Christmas /New Year - the most dangerous time of the year in Thailand to drive long distance, due to the huge rise in road accidents during this period.
Keeping all of this in mind, we are aiming to bring the girls home to BLES, in the second week of January 2023!!
There is such an air of excitement buzzing around BLES right now and I hope you can feel our love and gratitude rippling out to each and every one of you, who played a part in making BLES history.
From the bottom of our hearts, on behalf of my entire family - thank you for enabling two sweet elephants, to experience and enjoy life in true sanctuary.