Elephant Bought From Tourist Hot Spot to Be Freed Into 4,500-Acre Sanctuary

Poaching, deforestation and tourism are three major threats to elephants in Asia, and very few get a second chance in life like Tofu, an 8-month-old elephant rescued from a life in chains in Laos. "I found Tofu at a horrible tourist riding camp in Laos while investigating another young elephant found stuck in chains for years," Aaron Jackson, president of Planting Peace, a humanitarian nonprofit, told Newsweek. "So while trying to secure her freedom I found 8-month-old Tofu chained up in the corner." Millions of tourists visit Laos every year with hopes of seeing one of their most famous animals, the Asian elephant, and maybe even riding one. "Tofu was bred for the purpose to sell or rent him," said Jackson. "Baby elephants are the biggest tourist draw of any type of elephant."

Luckily for Tofu, he now gets to live out the rest of his life without chains or cruelty, after a successful fundraiser set up by Jackson bought his freedom, although he nearly lost him to a Chinese buyer. "We started a fundraiser raising money to buy him so we could set him free because, due to his young age, we thought he was a good candidate to be rewilded," Jackson said. However, I found out that a Chinese buyer had put in a bid, most likely to put him in a zoo." Incredibly, an anonymous supporter donated $9,000 to Tofu's cause, and the total raised on GoFundMe came to $53,979 with just 54 donations. "I was beyond relieved when we had a large donor step up and help us close the funding gap faster than expected," said Jackson. "When we hit that goal, I immediately let Tofu's owner know. I did not want to lose him to a zoo. I'm just happy to see so many people come together to help baby Tofu."

Tofu will now be transported to a 300-acre facility, where he will live for the next year among other rescued elephants before being moved to a 4,500-acre sanctuary. Laos was once the ancient kingdom of Lan Xang, which translates to "Land of a Million Elephants." But the nation's government and conservation groups estimate that only 800 elephants are left in the country: 400 in the wild and 400 in captivity. Deforestation remains the major cause for the reduction in wild elephants, as their habitats are destroyed to provide lucrative timber to neighboring Vietnam and China. The country has only 40 percent forest coverage left, down from 70 percent in 1950, according to the World Wild Fund for Nature. "This causes wild elephants to find themselves eating from someone's farm," said Jackson. "Then, that usually results in the elephant getting killed." He went on, "I've seen some terrible cases of abuse over the years within the tourism industry. Shortly after COVID restrictions were lifted, we found an abandoned, starving elephant chained to a tree at a riding camp that went out of business due to the pandemic. The vet told us maybe she had a month to live without intervention. To make things worse, she was blind in one eye due to someone hitting her with a chain." The elephant made it to safety, thanks to Planting Peace.

The use of bull hooks, tourist rides and other forms of cruelty is widely known, yet tourists continue to encourage animal mistreatment in Asia by visiting unethical "sanctuaries." And just because a camp doesn't allow riding does not mean it's "ethical." "I will never understand why tourists enjoy visiting these horrible places," said Jackson. "I know it's hard because they advertise that they're an ethical rescue or use some type of buzzword to trick tourists. "I recently shot a video of tourists playing with an elephant in the water," he continued. "The elephant was doing tricks. What the tourist could not see was that, under the water, the elephant was being stabbed with a hook. Most people working at these places know how to hide the hook from tourists." The only way to know for sure you're visiting an ethical sanctuary is to research and then research some more, according to Jackson. "Try to work with real nonprofits and not places that just simply use nonprofit buzzwords like sanctuary," he said. Newsweek's "What Should I Do?" offers expert advice to readers. If you have a personal dilemma, let us know via life@newsweek.com. We can ask experts for advice on relationships, family, friends, money and work, and your story could be featured in WSID. Update 1/5/24, 2:58 a.m. ET: This article was updated with new images.