guardian.co.uk,
Associated Press, Thursday 26 January 2012
 |
| Many elephants in Thailand are domesticated and used mainly for heavy lifting and entertainment. Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images |
Two wild
elephants were found slaughtered last month in a national park in western
Thailand, alerting authorities to the new practice of consuming elephant meat.
"The
poachers took away the elephants' sex organs and trunks … for human
consumption," Damrong Phidet, director-general of Thailand's wildlife
agency, told the Associated Press. Some meat was to be consumed without
cooking, like "elephant sashimi," he said.
Consuming
elephant meat is not common in Thailand, but some Asian cultures believe
consuming animals' reproductive organs can boost sexual prowess. Thailand's
national symbol is the elephant.
Damrong
said the elephant meat was ordered by restaurants in Phuket, a popular travel
destination in the country's south. It wasn't clear if the diners were
foreigners.
Poaching
elephants is banned, and trafficking or possessing poached animal parts also is
illegal. Elephant tusks are sought in the illegal ivory trade, and baby wild
elephants are sometimes poached to be trained for talent shows.
"The
situation has come to a crisis point. The longer we allow these cruel acts to
happen, the sooner they will become extinct," Damrong said.
The quest
for ivory remains the top reason poachers kill elephants in Thailand, other
environmentalists say.
Soraida
Salwala, the founder of Friends of the Asian Elephant foundation, said a full
grown pair of tusks could be sold from 1m-2m baht ($31,600 to $63,300), while
the estimated value of an elephant's penis is more than 30,000 baht ($950).
"There's
only a handful of people who like to eat elephant meat, but once there's
demand, poachers will find it hard to resist the big money," she
cautioned.
Thailand
has less than 3,000 wild elephants and about 4,000 domesticated elephants,
according to the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department.
The
pachyderms were a mainstay of the logging industry in the northern and western
parts of the country until logging contracts were revoked in the late 1980s.
Domesticated
animals today are used mainly for heavy lifting and entertainment.
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