The babies all sleep with Natalie every night. Princess MC Rangsinoppadol Ukol makes ceremony
Natalie has successfully settled in. Thailand's media has continued to show interest in Natalie with many live feeds on various national TV programs. This has meant that Laithongrien Meepan has been able to continue to reach a vast audience to educate the public about Thailands elephants, the issues they face and the solutions that can be employed to help those in need. Princess MC Rangsinappodol Ukol has been very supportive as well. She has also been interviewed, was there at the all important ceremony on Friday and she even made her own private ceremony for Natalies well being. Despite all her previous problems, Natalie has brought with her a positive energy. The Thai public's interest and awareness has increased dramatically. Natalie has become an ambassador for her species. This type of publicity for the Thai elephant is rare and we are grateful that we have been able to reach out to so many people and educate them about elephants.
Thanks to highly successful campaign and the generosity of concerned people for Natalies welfare, we managed to raise enough money to bring Natalie to the Kraal today. She was calm and curious as to her new surroundings and responded to all the attention without incident. With many media people recording her journey here, Thailand has been following her story with great interest. To see her now successfully welcomed into her new home we are all very grateful to the people who gave generously to ensure Natalie would be safe and secure. Although we have not reached our initiial goal of one million baht. We did manage to raise 600,000 baht which was enough to give the owner for her. We are still accepting donations for Natalie as her upkeep will not be cheap and we will still be needing to put a lot of time, effort and money into her to ensure she has the best possible life from now on and will never have to harm anyone again.
Tommorrow morning we will be holding a special ceremony inside the Royal Elephant Kraal.
16th JULY 2009
Her name is Natalie, so named after Miss Universe, as she is a very beautiful female elephant. She is only 25 years old but has recently killed 3 people. In addition the owner's brother was also killed by Natalie, but he still loves her and wants her taken care of. She is currently in Trang in the south of Thai. The villagers in the area want her gone because of the killings. On Sunday 12th July, there was another meeting and about 100 people turned up to protest against Natalie. So it seems her life is under threat if she stays much longer as there are alot of angry people who want her gone one way or another. The owner only bought her 6 months ago for 650,000 Baht. She was being used to log rubber trees. Apparently she has killed in the past as well. We want to raise enough money to buy her and rehabilitate her at the Kraal. Depending on how she responds we may keep her here or send her to an elephant village in the north east were there would also be good mahouts to take care of her. She wont have to work as it is clear she is adverse to this, but she still needs to be looked after. We are looking to raise around 1,000,000 baht to pay for her and get her transported here and to cover other initial expenses. There is also a media and TV campaign in Thailand to encourage Thai people to donate. It is important people understand that there are many types of elephants in many different circumstances in Thailand, some good, some problematic. Highlighting Natalie's plight will also be an opportuinity to further educate the Thai public about their national symbol.
We really need to raise around 1,000,000 baht. The owner is going to lose alot of money on her as he will need to pay compensation to the families of Natalie's victims of around 450,000 baht. As he has also suffered a great personal tragedy with his brother being another victim we dont want to see him being punished further financially. We already have 100,000 baht, pledge to start the campaign with a donation from David Lyman, who is an expat lawyer in Bangkok and who previously donated money for another killer elephant, Omchakawan, (many of you who have been here, may be familiar with Omchakawan)
If you could help save Natalie it would be really appreciated.
If you would like to make a donation please do so here or you can contact Ewa Narkiewicz at elephantstay@elephantstay.com or mobile (outside Thailand) +66 80 668 7727 or (within Thailand) 080 668 7727
