11/03/2025
This is what "just a 20-minute elephant ride" really costs.
For 25 years, Pai Lin carried up to six tourists at a time on her back. Today, at 71 years old, her spine is forever sunken where a healthy elephant's should be dome-shaped.
Before her rescue in 2007, she knew nothing but exploitation - forced to work in logging, used for street begging, and made to carry tourists in a heavy wooden seat. She arrived at the sanctuary terrified, dehydrated, and sick.
Now "Grandma" Pai Lin roams freely at Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, but her body will forever bear the scars of those "memorable vacation photos."
Elephant spines were never designed to carry heavy loads, no matter how strong these gentle giants appear.
Nightfam, would you still ride an elephant knowing the lifetime of pain it causes?
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