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Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

author:Worldwide Screening Hall

Have you ever seen an elephant chained to its knees in overweight mahogany?

The elephant slave who is physically exhausted and beaten by his master and constantly screams of misery is the tragic fate of the elephants in Laos. Two men were cleaning the elephants on the ground, and after cleaning up the dirt and dust off them, the two men instructed the elephants to go deep in the dense forest to transport the fallen mahogany to the distant Mekong River, and one of them rode an elephant across the river and then began to climb the mountain.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

After a while, they encountered a very steep mud slope, the elephant carried the owner to climb up with difficulty, the slope itself was large, plus the elephant's four feet were as long as the same height, they could only bend their knees to walk on their knees to maintain the balance of the body, for the slope half-slope, the elephants showed great intelligence and walked very steadily, in the jungle, whether it is bamboo forest or path, bush, they are fearless and easy to cross.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

The two men sitting on the elephant's head enjoyed it very much, if they simply climbed the mountain on their own, within a kilometer or two they would be tired and breathless, and the weather was unusually hot at this time, if you forgot to bring water throat may have smoked. They had been walking for three hours, and two elephants were going to carry them from here until they reached the foggy mountains.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

After climbing about fifteen kilometers, they finally arrived at the place where the mahogany was checked, they were far from the main road, and there were a large number of trees in front of them that had been cut down and only stumps. Some of the stumps were running water, some looked like blood, some were terrifying.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

At noon, according to the habits of ordinary people, they were just eating lunch, and the two elephants had not drunk a single sip of water from morning to noon, nor had they eaten, let alone rested. In order to ensure that the timber could be transported out of the forest before dark, two men tied the wood in chains three or two times, and then tied it to the elephant, ready to go down the mountain immediately, a piece of wood weighed several tons and was very long, the friction with the ground was great, there were many obstacles in the forest, and it was very difficult to pull it to the main road.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

There is a bamboo forest where the elephant is going to pass, the front and back dislocation will completely block the consignment of wood, mainly can not turn, at the urging of the owner, the elephant hesitated, and finally had to use its head to open the way, it crashed hard into the bamboo forest, knocked all the bamboo down, even the bamboo roots were destroyed by it. Then, it used all its strength to drag the wood out, it was unimaginable, pulling such a heavy thing, the elephant still had so much ability. When the wood is stuck, its owner has been exerting pressure to allow it to stay for a moment, and when the elephant is pulling the wood, the head and nose are its tools, and sometimes it will roll down the mountain with a gentle push.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

When encountering that situation, the elephant will use its nose or legs to arch the wood little by little, until the wood is arched, and humans use the elephant as a crane bulldozer, no matter how many tons of wood it can drag forward, and sometimes it will be tired of wailing, which makes people listen to it.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

Only when it encounters a flat downhill road, or a gentle slope, it can be slightly easier, but like this slope, the half-slope road can only be walked sideways, and the wood is easy to get stuck in the raised place, and the elephant can only straighten it out to go, which is extremely difficult. If you can't drink water all day long, you have to pull the wood around, and sometimes when the heat is not enough, it will spray the water stored in the stomach on the surface of the body to cool down.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the temperature was as high as 40 degrees, the elephant was overloaded, it was struggling and roaring in exchange for rest, but its owner was indifferent, knowing that its physical strength had reached its limit, but it kept scolding it to speed up, when dragging the wood down and uphill, its wailing sounded throughout the forest, every step was very difficult, every 5 meters to stop and rest, the owner in order to hurry, directly hit his head with the back of the axe.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

It was not until about 5:30 p.m. that they finally reached the river valley, at this time replaced by ordinary people, their feet were no longer willing to take another step forward, and the elephant's road continued, it needed to pull the wood to the designated river valley, and then from the river valley to the Mekong River, to the Mekong River to really complete the task, because the mountain forest is larger and more wood, the elephant takes three months to pull all the wood back and forth, as long as it does not rain it will work non-stop.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

There is a village known as an elephant village, where every household has elephants, but that was a long time ago, and now the village is both depressed and lonely, because the elephants eat more, the people here can not provide enough food, they all driven to the mountain, only when someone wants to hire elephants, the villagers will get them back.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

According to local villagers, in some villages in the lower Mekong, there are merchants who hire elephants into the mountains, this village is called gold rushing village, many people will pan for gold on the bank of the river to maintain their livelihoods, and the soaring profits of the redwood market have not brought prosperity to this village rich in redwood.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

The best wood in Laos is rosewood, but also the villagers like to cut the object, but they are generally carried out in secret, go to the mountains to find, a muddy path is all elephant footprints, the number of times to walk has become a road, once people find that there are pear trees on the mountain, they will find a suitable time to quietly cut it, and then find some leaves to hide it, until a merchant finds them they will bring people up to see, which leads to a lot of wood piled on the mountain for a long time, the result is weathered.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

In order to sell the wood faster, the villagers will ask around who needs to buy, and the merchants will also ask around where there is wood to sell, so the middlemen have appeared, and they can make some differences from it, which requires both Chinese and Lao, in order to communicate with the villagers and merchants unimpeded.

There was an incredible amount of wood piled up on the banks of the river near the village, these were expensive pear blossom trees, waiting to be shipped, because the wood was heavier and required a lot of manpower, but most of the merchants were reluctant to spend this money, so they extended their claws to the elephants. Merchants hired elephants to drag sticks of wood from the shore to the side of the boat, and from the side of the ship with their heads and noses to the boat, repeating it back and forth again and again, and at the end of the day they were severely exhausted, and at night, they would be driven into the mountains and forests to find their own food.

Lao elephant slaves: Elephants are used as machines to do hard labor, tired and fall without food, and killed if they do not obey

Elephants live for many years without being overutilized, and they are extremely capable of survival and adaptability. The people in the elephant village mentioned above have been training elephants to consign timber since they were young, and if they disobey, they can only be beaten or even killed.

At present, there are 1500 elephants employed in Laos, but many elephants are gradually shortening their lifespan due to overwork, if people do not have the consciousness to protect them, then the consequences are unimaginable, elephants live with humans on this beautiful planet of the earth, have the qualifications to be treated fairly, no one is more noble than anyone, who is inferior to whom, we should live in harmony with them and make the world full of love.

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