Close Encounter with the SPCA at Phuket Zoo

When I had my first encounter with the SPCA here in Thailand, I was working as a mahout at Phuket Zoo. My charge was a 14 month old bull elephant, called Marway. Marway was just beginning to eat solid food such as long grass, which I had to chop into smaller pieces. His milk diet consisted of boiled rice porridge and milk, with bananas. I had to wake up at 4 am to boil the milk mixture for him, because it had to cool down enough for him to drink it. A baby bottle was made from used water bottles with a nipple on top. This diet is standard pretty much all over Thailand. Baby elephants are usually separated from their mothers at the age of one year, so that they would bond with their human mahouts. This is done to facilitate training at an early age. The longer one waits to train a baby, the more difficult it will be for it to perform the tasks that are required of it. What the baby is trained to do, will depend on its character and ability. For example, babies that are not so strong, will learn how to paint and make music. Ironically babies get a real kick out of using their trunk as a hand…..

Marway was fed three times a day with milk. It was during the second feeding, at approx. 10 am, that the zoo’s general manager approached me and dumped a woman on me, saying to me in Thai, “ You deal with this”……Huh??? I learned that the woman was from the SPCA, and told her that while we talked, I would be preparing the baby elephant’s formula. The formula had cooled enough for me to start squeezing fresh bananas into the milk formula. So here I was, both hands covered with bananas and milk formula, while this woman poured out her numerous complaints.

The first complaint was about the crocodile pools being filthy….. My response was in the form of a question. Was she not aware that whenever crocodiles were sick or injured, this was exactly what they needed to heal….. “Oh!! I didn’t know!!!!”

Second complaint…why are the tigers tied up so short? The answer is obvious enough in such an environment… However, it was made clear to her that they hated the heat and as such had 2 fans each, which blew cool air at them. This generally made them lazy enough to sleep in this tropical heat. In the early morning, before the zoo opens, all working tigers went for a walk with their handlers, virtually all over the zoo. They would work for no more than 4 hours, before they return to their cages that were equipped with a swimming pool. Approximately an hour after returning to their cages, they would receive the meal of the day. The very young tigers would also receive milk before the zoo closed at 4:30…. Here came that famous reply from the lady again…  “Oh!!  I didn’t know!!!”

While all this dialogue was going on, I kept right on preparing the banana-milk formula for Marway. Actually I surprised myself at how cool and calm I was through this entire interview!

The third question then followed. Why is such a large eagle kept in such a small cage? We had a massive sea eagle, dark brown in color, in a cage that was indeed too small for it. The bird had become entangled in the fishermen’s nets and they brought it to us 5 days earlier. Since we did not have a cage suitable for a bird of this size, a new cage was being constructed for this eagle. She also complained about the sea eagles in our care. I explained the situation about the brown eagle and the fact that the sea eagles that we had, were blind in one eye and would therefore find it most difficult to survive in the wild. All the eagles were eating a hefty amount of fish, including the newcomer, which meant that they were not under undue stress. This conversation went back and forth in this mode, while I hand fed my baby elephant. He drank his milk with his eyes half closed, and all this for the woman from the SPCA to see. The circumstances were hilarious!! As if to rub the message in, junior became very playful after he finished his milk. I played with him and let this woman watch our games. Another 15 minutes went by and junior started getting very sleepy.

He was not chained up, because he was in the company of two other baby elephants who were already 3 and 5 years old. He just lay down on the floor and took a nap….

The lady from the SPCA had no more questions. In fact she was in tears of joy,  watching me and Marway. Hahahahaha! She threw one last surprise at me! She gave me a 500 baht bill and said “thank you for the education and the opportunity to watch the interaction with the elephants” There was no trouble at Phuket Zoo and none of us ever heard another sound from the SPCA.

The moral of this story…..before anyone starts mouthing off, please do the appropriate research…..