an elephant

This elephant’s plight sparked outrage. Here’s an update.

National Geographic’s account of Gluay Hom, an injured young elephant in Thailand, triggered calls for rescue. Here’s how he’s doing now.

Gluay Hom, pictured here in June 2019 at Samut Prakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo outside of Bangkok, is now five years old. His swollen leg has healed, and he no longer has any open sores. He remains chained underneath the performance stadium, and his body condition remains very poor, according to animal welfare experts who have visited him.

Tom Taylor, Courtesy Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand.
Editor's note: On August 6, 2019, Gluay Hom was moved to a sanctuary. Read his rescue story here.

Last June, behind a stadium in the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, I stood in front of a young elephant that was chained to a pole. His leg was swollen and bent unnaturally. He had a bloody sore at his temple from lying on the hard ground. His eyes wouldn’t focus.

Gluay Hom, the four-year-old elephant at Samut Prakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo, was too unwell to perform tricks in the facility’s daily elephant shows. At that point, photographer Kirsten Luce and I had been in Thailand for a month, reporting a story on the captive wildlife tourism industry. We’d seen hundreds of tethered elephants in camps and paddocks around the country.

Gluay Hom was in the worst shape we’d seen. We

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