What has made me most aware that I am abroad has been the little things I don’t think about while living in America, yet miss while I am here in China. These things range from the lack of the websites I used to stream music or TV shows from, to the simple lack of squirrels.

Animals in Asia are a little different than in the United States. One of the things that first hit me was the number of stray and feral dogs on the street. While most of them are well-behaved and don’t seem to be too mangy, I am not used to walking down the street and seeing dogs without leashes everywhere. One student on our trip carried chicken nuggets with her through mainland China and fed the various dogs that she saw. None of them bit her.

Another animal that is normal here, but rare in the States is the monkey. I don’t see them when I am walking around in downtown Hong Kong, but we went on a hike in the mountains and saw a few. They are used to humans and were just hanging out on the side of the road like squirrels do in the U.S. It was a cool experience because it was a concrete example of something that is exotic to me but run-of-the-mill here.

My most interesting abroad animal experience so far was riding elephants in Thailand. It is one of those things that people say you have to do, and I don’t disagree. If you are in Philadelphia, you see the Liberty Bell. If you are in Thailand, you ride elephants.

Unfortunately, there was no elephant sanctuary close to where we were staying in Patong, so we had to resign ourselves to booking an all-inclusive outdoor adventure-type tour. While the tour included elephant riding, it didn’t treat its animals well, and we felt bad for patronizing this establishment.

There have been a number of articles published about the ethics of most elephant-riding places in Thailand. We knew about the articles and the poor treatment of the animals, but that knowledge could not possibly compare to seeing it firsthand. The elephants were chained and one even had barbed wire on one of his legs. As we rode, the trainer who rode with us hit the elephant if it was not going fast enough. At one point, I saw an elephant in the shade not working and I was glad that they gave the elephants breaks, but the trainer told me it was baby so, presumably, it is not working yet.

The worst moment of the day was when one elephant was forced to play the harmonica while spinning a hula hoop around its trunk as part of a show for the tourists.

It’s worth noting that there are places in Thailand that treat animals well. One tiger sanctuary close to us allowed tourists to take pictures with tigers that had not been drugged. The website of the place claimed that the tigers were well-trained and used to humans so they did not need to be tranquilized. Unfortunately the prices were too steep, and we did not get the chance to go.

I haven’t done a lot of research about the ethics of elephant training in Thailand and how it compares to the treatment of animals at similar facilities in the U.S. I am sure that both places have their problems. Overall, I don’t know if I am glad I rode elephants while in Thailand. Like I said, it’s a quintessentially Thai experience, but the moral and ethical dilemmas that it poses really impacted the moment.

Claire Moran is a junior broadcast and digital journalism and international relations dual major. Her column appears weekly in Pulp. She can be reached at clmoran@syr.edu. 

Published on February 17, 2016 at 7:17 pm