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Elephant Whisperer: Vlogger Becomes Saviour For Captive Animals

The elephants had been forced to work till the point of collapse. 

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For a painfully long span of 80 years, two elephants in Thailand had been held in captivity. However, the animals received much awaited relief when a YouTube star decided to come to their rescue.

A filmmaker and vlogger, 23-year-old Christian Leblanc from Canada, engaged in a deal to save the elephants. He along with his team, paired up with Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and paid thousands of dollars to free the ill-treated animals.

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Boonme and Buabaan were ill-treated for most of their lives. They spent their years being bound by chains and forced to work to the point where they would collapse with exhaustion. The plight of the elephants represented almost entirely, the evils of the elephant-trekking trade and the logging industry.

In a fortunate twist, now the two elephants can be seen splashing in mud and bathing in the river at the Nature Park, where they indulge in nothing but playing and snacking. They are now finally living a life away from abuse and slavery.

Before we freed them, they would’ve been giving dozens of people rides on their backs every day. To the point where Boonme actually collapsed and had to be lifted by a crane so she could get back to work. That’s when we knew something had to be done.
Christian Leblanc
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The team underwent a journey of almost 15 hours to reach the troubled elephants in a town called Surin. This rescue comes as a part of LeBlanc’s documentary called Black Tusk, where he actively campaigns against elephant cruelty that occurs in the ‘elephant trekking’ industry of Thailand.

Like humans, elephants are very social and so they show immense distress when they are treated as they are in the trekking camps and elephant entertainment parks. You literally see them swaying back and forth and they will even let out cries of sadness and desperation. It’s truly horrific to see but I’m glad I did, because it led me here. We hope that by showing people the cruelty that elephants face, we can help end the suffering for these elephants and pave the path to responsible elephant tourism.

Video Editor: Sandeep Suman

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Topics:  Thailand   Elephant   YouTube 

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