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Liam Kelly and a Tiger


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Just read this in yesterday's Belfast Telegraph -

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/from-tyrone-to-thailand-kerri-mccrea-dedicates-her-life-to-saving-endangered-elephants-34756550.html

From Tyrone to Thailand, Kerri McCrea dedicates her life to saving endangered elephants

By Rebecca Black

Published 30/05/2016

Co Tyrone woman Kerri McCrea has set up a sanctuary in Thailand to rescue overworked elephants and release them into the wild

A Tyrone woman has packed her trunk and set up an elephant sanctuary in Thailand.

Kerri McCrea, who studied Zoology at Queen's University, said she was horrified to witness the state many elephants were left in after being overworked to the point of exhaustion.

At Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary she rescues debilitated elephants, nurses them back to health and then releases them back into the wild.

Kerri grew up on a dairy farm in Co Tyrone and said she has been surrounded by animals all her life.

She always knew she wanted a career working with creatures but wasn't sure exactly what this would entail - now she's ended up caring for the biggest and one of the most loved land mammals of them all.

Having graduated from Queen's University Belfast in 2013 with a degree in Zoology, Kerri moved to Thailand where she worked with various non-governmental organisations (NGOs), roles which saw her become involved with elephant projects.

She said having her eyes opened to the plight of working elephants in Asia sparked a passion, and she has been working on ways to help them and spread awareness ever since. To this end she has even learned the tribal Karen language, to enable her to communicate with the locals where the sanctuary is located.

Kerri set up the Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary with her Thai partner Sombat who is from the Karen tribe.

She told the Belfast Telegraph they work in a complicated situation.

"We have just returned four elephants to their natural habitat from the tourist camps," she said.

"Where our elephants were was one of the worst sites of elephant tourism that there is. Every day they were working with saddles on their backs. They were worked to exhaustion.

"It is a very, very complicated situation here. My boyfriend's elephants were kept at the tourist camp which basically rented them, providing an income for their families.

"I have seen elephants collapse from exhaustion and then made to stand up and continue on, giving rides all day. There is no healthcare. They are not given the right food and they are kept on short chains.

"They weren't allowed to socialise or forage or do anything that elephants are supposed to do."

Kerri said she loves seeing how excited elephants are when they are returned to the wild.

"Sombat and I worked together to provide an alternative that would benefit the elephants and the families," she explained. "We have returned them to the forest near his dad's village and will be able to pay the same monthly rent to the families through visitors, volunteers and donations.

"I love seeing these magnificent elephants get back to nature after having no freedom or choice of what they are doing.

"On the day they were released there was so much rumbling and so many squeaks from them because they were so excited to be back where they should be.

"The villagers are really happy too as we are working with them to set up home-stays, so when people visit they can stay with them and (they) earn more of an income."

Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary is a non-profit foundation dedicated to giving elephants the best life possible with the help of visitors and volunteers.

There are more than 4,000 captive elephants in Thailand, most of whom are living in inadequate conditions with incorrect care and no freedom.

Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary believes this is not the right environment for elephants, which is why it works towards bringing as many elephants as possible back to their natural habitat, as well as raising awareness with the public.

The sanctuary aims to work alongside elephant owners, the community and other organisations to bring a brighter future for all captive elephants.

Find out more about Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary by visting the website at www.kselephantsanctuary.org

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18 hours ago, Siam69 said:

Correct!

The famous Tiger Temple is currently in the process of being shut down, nevermind the other ' tiger zoos'.

Same as elephant trekking, the animals are used and abused.

Every time we go to Thailand, myself and the wife volunteer here at this elephant sanctuary in Kanchanaburi -  http://www.elephantsworld.org/

While also visiting Helllfire Pass, the infamous bridge over the river Kwai, the war cemeteries and museums. Love Kanchanaburi.

Very humbling and rewarding, such gentle, intelligent and sadly abused animals.

 

My boy did a week or two at a refuge in Laos.  He loved it.

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8 minutes ago, Blueshoff said:

yes for elephants

I would ask he where but he's in Shanghai at the moment!

Brilliant!

Thankfully due to education most people are swerving the trekking businesses where the elephants can and do get abused.

There is more and more sanctuaries being set up which are not for profit, and where the animals are rescued and treated well, and tourists can go see and help with the welfare of these gentle, intelligent creatures.

It's very rewarding and humbling, which I'm sure your son would confirm (tu) 

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4 hours ago, Siam69 said:

Brilliant!

Thankfully due to education most people are swerving the trekking businesses where the elephants can and do get abused.

There is more and more sanctuaries being set up which are not for profit, and where the animals are rescued and treated well, and tourists can go see and help with the welfare of these gentle, intelligent creatures.

It's very rewarding and humbling, which I'm sure your son would confirm (tu) 

He absolutely loved it.  Cost him a few quid that he couldn't afford but he would go back in a flash.

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On 30/05/2016 at 5:42 PM, siddiqi_drinker said:

Been there, done it got the tshirt, sadly these Tigers are drugged up to the eyeballs.   What is a weekend occurrence for some RM posters is a daily abuse for these animals.

They sit about all day getting stroked by the likes of Liam Kelly while getting given free drugs, and you call that abuse?

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I heard of this place in China where you go on a bus and they give you a live chicken and you can feed it to the tigers, defo want to do that one day

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20 hours ago, Siam69 said:

I did yea, hired a scorpion boat for a half day from below the bridge, took us there and one of the other museums.

Indeed, and from wide variety of countries.

Just a few pics from Hellfire Pass, two different war cemeteries, the bridge from our scorpion boat, breakfast from our hotel at the River Kwai, and evening meal by the bridge. Not great quality as taken from my phone.

My daughter is due any day, then we'll be back in January of next year. The pics are making me twitchy :D

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Was feeling it until you started posting pictures of your grub,  sort it out mate?

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30 minutes ago, dougie76 said:

Was feeling it until you started posting pictures of your grub,  sort it out mate?

:lol:

Wasn't so much the food, although it was great, it was the setting where we had it.

The hotel we always use is right on the River Kwai by the famous/infamous bridge.

988876_10203311802457107_8947164087992182834_n.jpg

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28 minutes ago, Siam69 said:

:lol:

Wasn't so much the food, although it was great, it was the setting where we had it.

The hotel we always use is right on the River Kwai by the famous/infamous bridge.

988876_10203311802457107_8947164087992182834_n.jpg

Right that's enough, stop rubbing it in ?

 

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7 minutes ago, harlands plater said:

Must be chilling to look at that bridge knowing the story behind it.

Hard cause the original bridge was destroyed.  IMO you get a feel for how bad it was visiting the museum though even that has been modernised for the tourists.  The original Death Camp, maintained by monks, was actually more realistic and more chilling.  Some of the old drawings and letters from POWs are sobering to say the least.  Go for a trek around the area in the heat and humidity of summer to get an idea of how debiliating the conditions were, then head back to your aircon room for a nice cold shower.  

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24 minutes ago, harlands plater said:

Must be chilling to look at that bridge knowing the story behind it.

As stated, the original bridge was bombed to fuck by the Allies in 1944, and has been rebuilt, though out of the wreck of the original.

Yea, for me Hellfire Pass and their museum was the best, most moving. But when I went it was the week after Anzac Day, so there had been lots crosses, flags, little heartfelt messages to lost relatives, very poignant . Can't really see it well in the pics in my previous post, but that was from then. I had also actually watched the Railway Man in the cinema, the true story of Eric Lomax, who actually survived it the night before I went, so it was quite surreal and also very moving. I think I can remember reading on here that Minstral used to meet up with Eric in Scotland.

There's also a few museums around the rebuilt bridge which are good, here's a make up of the original huts where they kept the prisoners, though without the fans obviously. And as has been said, it can reach 40 degrees, so imagine getting worked incessantly on fuck all food or drink!

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I remember going down the bottom of hellfire pass and saw quite a lot of what I thought was litter. Was a bit pissed off at the lack of people's respect until I found out the reason. It's food put there by the Thai people for the spirits of the guys who never made it.  Unreal how the respect is still shown to this day, we can all learn a lot from the Thai people and their ways to honour the dead. And incidentally there were more Thais who died than all the other nations final totals. There weren't even in the war but the Japs forced them to provide additional labour. Met some Aussie veterans out there to pay their respects who were so anti Japanese it made this Glaswegian blush. ?

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32 minutes ago, eosmhdo said:

I remember going down the bottom of hellfire pass and saw quite a lot of what I thought was litter. Was a bit pissed off at the lack of people's respect until I found out the reason. It's food put there by the Thai people for the spirits of the guys who never made it.  Unreal how the respect is still shown to this day, we can all learn a lot from the Thai people and their ways to honour the dead. And incidentally there were more Thais who died than all the other nations final totals. There weren't even in the war but the Japs forced them to provide additional labour. Met some Aussie veterans out there to pay their respects who were so anti Japanese it made this Glaswegian blush. ?

Yea, the romusha, the labourers forced to work by the Japanese were by far the most that died, Thai, Burmese, Malay etc. They were treated even worse than the Allie POW's, who called them the coolies.

The Aussie's come in great numbers on Anzac Day, hard to get a hotel room.  

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Great comments on the elephant and Kanchanaburi subjects gents. I live in Bangkok and as well as having participated in these (and many other BKK activities ... cough cough), I have (off topic I know) visited the museums etc in Phnom Penh and Saigon. Similarly harrowing and humbling and well worth it next time you're back out here. Oh and if I can assist a fellow bear on their visits to Thailand then please let me know.

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3 hours ago, geneva_ger said:

Great comments on the elephant and Kanchanaburi subjects gents. I live in Bangkok and as well as having participated in these (and many other BKK activities ... cough cough), I have (off topic I know) visited the museums etc in Phnom Penh and Saigon. Similarly harrowing and humbling and well worth it next time you're back out here. Oh and if I can assist a fellow bear on their visits to Thailand then please let me know.

And do you agree MBK has the best shopping in the whole wide world :D

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On 30/05/2016 at 5:59 PM, Siam69 said:

Correct!

The famous Tiger Temple is currently in the process of being shut down, nevermind the other ' tiger zoos'.

Same as elephant trekking, the animals are used and abused.

Every time we go to Thailand, myself and the wife volunteer here at this elephant sanctuary in Kanchanaburi -  http://www.elephantsworld.org/

While also visiting Helllfire Pass, the infamous bridge over the river Kwai, the war cemeteries and museums. Love Kanchanaburi.

Very humbling and rewarding, such gentle, intelligent and sadly abused animals.

 

Hitting the news today. 40 dead cubs in a freezer. Trading parts for Chinese medicine? Bad yin.

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1 hour ago, Inigo said:

Hitting the news today. 40 dead cubs in a freezer. Trading parts for Chinese medicine? Bad yin.

Yes, it's not good reading.

I think it was genuinely started with the best of intentions. All temples in Thailand are places where people take all manner of waifs and strays, that includes animals and children, knowing the monks will take them in, feed and take care of them.

 But unfortunately Thailand is corrupt from the top down, and with such huge sums of money involved, this was always going to get 'infiltrated'.

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29 minutes ago, Siam69 said:

Yes, it's not good reading.

I think it was genuinely started with the best of intentions. All temples in Thailand are places where people take all manner of waifs and strays, that includes animals and children, knowing the monks will take them in, feed and take care of them.

 But unfortunately Thailand is corrupt from the top down, and with such huge sums of money involved, this was always going to get 'infiltrated'.

Even becoming a monk nowadays is all about money and face.  Whole country is morally and ethically bankrupt, so the 40 cubs in the freezer whilst sickening is not surprsing.

They should level Pattaya, ladyboys included and turn it into a Tiger Sanctuary by the Sea. :mutley:

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On 1 June 2016 at 4:58 PM, Siam69 said:

And do you agree MBK has the best shopping in the whole wide world :D

God I hate MBK and the donuts that stop at every counter but agree it has everything anyone can ever need. Just do not like shops ... Aaaagh!

 

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