Bringing the Elephants Home

Bring the Elephants Home was an educational conservation project

The Bringing the Elephants Home Campaign was an educational and conservation project involving a trek across Thailand with two of our elephants, Thai and Siam. The aim of the campaign was to raise awareness on the issue of street elephants and elephant conservation.

The project was undertaken by Charles Begley and Rachel Jones in 2002 with the intention of walking two street elephants to their new home in a sanctuary in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.

“We began our journey in the old Thai capital of Ayutthaya, intending to walk 700 km over three months to Chiang Mai.

We were rapturously received by the Thai people on route, many of who had never seen an elephant or foreigners before. The people we met had the opportunity to bathe and feed the elephants and each day we gave talks on the issue of elephant conservation”.

The campaign received wide press coverage in Thailand and was featured on the UK’s ITN news.

Sadly however the project came under attack from jealous political groups and Charles and Rachel were threatened with arrest. For the safety of the elephants, and to avoid any potential conflict with the Thai authorities, they decided to halt the trek before they reached Chiang Mai.