Thai elephant trainers, or mahouts, help World Vision Report Producer Cynthia Graber navigate her steed through a river. Photo courtesy Cynthia Graber.
In Thailand, elephants were the workhorses for the nation’s logging industry. When the government banned logging in the 1980s, a lot of elephant trainers found themselves out of work. But in northern Thailand, the government-sponsored Elephant Conservation Center keeps them employed. They now train elephants to perform for tourists. The World Vision Report’s Cynthia Graber takes a ride on an elephant and talks with its trainer who spends more time with his elephant than he does with his family.
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