Mare Noi

This majestic lady is Mare Noi and she is in her mid forties. She arrived at BLES on the 12th August 2024, which is globally reconized as World Elephant Day and is also Mother’s day here in Thailand.

Mare Noi translates as ‘Little Mother’ - a name you would assume has a loving story behind it. Sadly, this couldnt be further from the truth for this sweet elephant.

Mare Noi’s story is heartbreaking. She has been subjected to so much suffering and has had to deal with unimaginable grief.

Ever since she was thought old enough to reproduce, Mare Noi was repeatedly violated. Chained up by all four legs and forced to stand still while a bull mounted her, was something she quickly had to learn to submit to.

Her owners were desperate for Mare Noi to produce calves and subjected her to forced breeding - a traumatic experience for both the male and female elephant involved.

We have no idea how many times she was forced to endure this cruel act, but we do know that she fell pregnant a total of three times and that she lost all three of the calves. Two of her pregnancies tragically ended in miscarriage. She was not allowed time to grieve or even heal, but was immediately impregnated again. When she eventually went into labor, she gave birth to a dead calf.

Mare Noi was a logging elephant - used to drag huge piles of logs and it is now well documented that a lifetime of such arduous labour can cause detrimental damage to a female elephant’s reproductive organs.

Mare Noi is also an extremely attractive elephant, which unfortunately had the most negative consequences on her welfare. A notorious elephant breeder made contact with Mare Noi’s owner and made a very tempting financial offer to him. He wanted to buy Mare Noi immediately and get her impregnanted straight away.

Mare Noi’s owner reached out to BLES Founder, Katherine and explained to her that he really wanted Mare Noi to be retired to BLES, but if we were unable to get the funds needed together within 48 hours, he would have no choice, but to sell her to the breeder.

Panicked and stressed, Katherine reached out to Aaron Jackson from Planting Peace - a US-based non-profit, and Calum Von Moger, who holds the title of Mr Universe 2011, 2014, and 2015! After hearing Mare Noi’s heartwrenching story, they dropped everything and flew straight to Thailand to help us save her.

The funds needed were successfully raised in less than 24 hours and Mare Noi was relocated to BLES without hesitation.