A major new report finds two in three captive elephants in Thailand live in poor conditions – despite the industry’s ethical re-brand. Here’s what the report actually says, and what you need to know before you go.
The sanctuary had no riding. No shows. It had a logo with a lotus flower and a tagline about conservation. It also had feeding sessions, bathing experiences, and a gift shop selling elephant-print everything. According to the most comprehensive study ever conducted on Thailand’s captive elephant industry, venues like that one are still causing serious harm – and most visitors have no idea.
Published in January 2026, the World Animal Protection “Bred to Entertain” report assessed 236 venues housing 2,849 elephants across Thailand, drawing on 15 years of continuous research. The findings are not particularly encouraging. Despite growing awareness, despite the slow retreat of elephant riding, despite venues rebranding themselves as sanctuaries and rescue centres, 69% of captive elephants are still living in poor or unacceptable conditions. Only 5% live under what researchers classify as the best possible captive conditions. The welfare scores recorded in 2024 and 2025 are almost identical to those from 2019.
What has changed is the packaging. Riding is down. Circus-style shows are declining. In their place, a new category of experience has surged: elephant bathing, washing, and “care-taking” activities. These now account for more than half of all captive elephants in the study, and venues offering them score poorly on welfare measures. The problem, as the report makes clear, is that any close-contact experience still depends on the same thing it always did: elephants that have been trained, through methods they find stressful, to tolerate human proximity on human terms. The lotus flower logo changes nothing about that.
This matters because Thailand’s elephant tourism isn’t a niche product. It is one of the most popular wildlife experiences in Southeast Asia, drawing millions of visitors each year. The industry has grown 70% in the past decade in terms of the number of captive elephants involved. The growth has not been driven by irresponsible operators alone – it has been driven by well-intentioned tourists who were told they were doing the right thing.
Distance is the point. Venues where elephants choose their own movements, without human interference, are the ones worth your money. Photo credit: Somboon Legacy Foundation
What good actually looks like
The report is not without nuance. Researchers identified a clear hierarchy of welfare outcomes. Observation-only venues – where visitors watch but do not touch, feed, wash, or interact with elephants – consistently scored highest. The gap between observation-only venues and those offering washing or feeding experiences is significant and measurable. It is not a matter of opinion or interpretation. Direct contact with tourists correlates with lower welfare scores across the board.
Several venues in Thailand have built their model around that principle. Two of them – Chang Chill and Somboon Legacy Foundation – did not feature in our previous guide to ethical elephant venues in Thailand and are worth a closer look. The Phuket Elephant Sanctuary, which we have covered before, has also taken a significant further step since that article was published.
Chang Chill, located around 90 minutes southwest of Chiang Mai, operates two sites in the forested hills above Mae Win. The sanctuary houses eight elephants – four at each location – all rescued from logging or tourism work. There is no riding, no bathing, no feeding, and no touching. Visitors follow guides through forest terrain and observe the elephants at distance while they forage, socialise, and move on their own terms. The half-day programme includes hotel pick-up from Chiang Mai, a vegetarian lunch, and the option to prepare food for the elephants without direct contact. It is not a comfortable, polished experience – the terrain is steep and can be muddy – but that is largely the point. The elephants are living in conditions as close to natural as captivity allows. Bookings direct through the Chang Chill website.
Somboon Legacy Foundation in Kanchanaburi, around two to three hours from Bangkok, is a non-profit NGO founded in 2019 on Thailand’s National Elephant Day. The foundation cares for elderly elephants retired from decades of work. The model is entirely hands-off: no feeding, no bathing, no physical interaction. Visits centre on observation, education, and an interactive elephant museum. Full-day and extended programmes are available, along with volunteering placements for those who want to spend more time at the sanctuary. It is one of the few venues near Bangkok where the ethics are genuinely watertight. The foundation can arrange accommodation nearby through partner hotels.
Somboon Legacy Foundation cares for retired elephants in Kanchanaburi – elderly animals who spent decades in logging and tourism industries before finding their way here.
The Phuket Elephant Sanctuary, which we have covered previously, took a further step forward on 1 April 2026. The sanctuary discontinued all feeding interactions from that date, completing its transition to a fully observation-only model. Visits now centre on the sanctuary’s canopy walkway, forested trails, and on-site veterinary hospital. Founded in 2016 by Montri Todtane, who closed his former elephant riding camp to establish it, the sanctuary is endorsed by World Animal Protection and is one of the most accessible options in southern Thailand for visitors based in Phuket.
The question you need to ask before you book
The World Animal Protection elephant-friendly venue guide is updated regularly and is the most reliable starting point for checking whether a specific venue has been assessed and approved. If a venue you are considering is not on that list, that alone should give you pause.
The other signal is simpler: if a venue offers any physical interaction with the elephants – bathing, washing, feeding from your hand, selfies at close range – it does not meet the welfare standard the research supports. The marketing language around those experiences has become sophisticated enough to fool most visitors. “Ethical bathing.” “Natural care experiences.” “Hands-on conservation.” These phrases all describe the same thing, and that thing causes measurable harm.
It is also worth being sceptical of venues that market themselves as sanctuaries or rescue centres without independent accreditation. The word sanctuary carries no legal definition in Thailand. Any venue can use it. The same goes for “ethical” – it is a description any operator can self-apply, and many do. If you have spent any time reading our guide on how to identify greenwashing in travel, the elephant industry is a useful case study in how the vocabulary of responsible tourism gets co-opted.
Behind the rebranding, the same pressures remain. Fifteen years of research shows welfare conditions across Thailand’s captive elephant industry are almost unchanged since 2019.
The harder question
Even genuine sanctuaries are a compromise. The World Animal Protection report is careful to note that observation-only venues, while significantly better than alternatives, are not perfect. Captive elephants cannot be returned to the wild – Thailand’s wild population is too fragmented and the risks of human-wildlife conflict too high. The mahout relationship, when handled well, provides genuine care. But the best outcome for an individual elephant would be a life in the wild, and that option is largely unavailable.
What visitors can do is choose venues that are honest about this. The best sanctuaries do not pretend to be conservation projects in the traditional sense. They are retirement homes for animals that have already lost the option of a wild life. Choosing them over venues that dress up exploitation as experience is the meaningful difference a visitor can make. The 5% of Thailand’s captive elephants living under the best possible conditions are living that way because tourists chose the right venue. The 69% in poor conditions are there partly because tourists chose badly – usually while thinking they were doing the right thing.
The Bred to Entertain findings were released in January 2026 and have already prompted renewed calls for the Thai government to introduce a breeding ban on captive elephants and tighten regulation of the sector. Progress has been slow. Until it arrives, the most effective lever available to any visitor is a booking decision.
**Correction, 30 May 2026: An earlier version of this article stated that Phuket Elephant Sanctuary holds Gold accreditation from ACES. This was incorrect and has been removed. We apologise for the error
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