The project provides free veterinary care to working elephants in Laos. There are around 470 captive elephants in Laos, the majority work in the logging industry enduring terrible hardships. Working in remote areas of forest access to veterinary treatment is often impossible with many elephants suffering from horrific, yet preventable ailments. ElefantAsia's mobile clinic team brave the rough terrain of Laos and head out into the remotest of areas to provide veterinary care to these elephants.
Logging is a dangerous occupation for an elephant, made to work at a furious pace many suffer from afflictions such as abscesses caused by work chains, septicaemia, diarrhea and digestive parasite as well as injuries such as broken legs, foot injuries and on occasions even death. Physical exhaustion and malnutrition are also issues of great concern. Without proper care and treatment these majestic animals will continue to suffer unnecessarily.
We conduct monthly mobile clinics providing free veterinary care to working elephants suffering from illness or injury. Vehicles especially adapted for the treatment of elephants in remote areas of Laos visit logging sites, tourism centers and villages where elephants are employed. We provide advice to mahouts on basic care and medicines whilst promoting reconversion of logging elephants into more humane and environmentally friendly activities like eco-tourism.
Sustaining the captive population of Asian elephants in Laos is beneficial to those elephants remaining in the wild. Maintaining a healthy captive population decreases the temptation to illegally capture and tame wild elephants, whilst registration and micro-chipping makes it more difficult to trade and export live elephants to neighboring countries. Reconversion of logging elephants to activities like eco-tourism reduces destruction of forests and makes for happier, healthier elephants.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
