With her disfigured spine and decades-old scars, Pai Lin’s 60 years of hard labor are etched into every inch of her battered body.

Asian elephant Pai Lin, left, has a deformed spine. A fellow WFFT resident, Thung Ngern, right, displays a healthy dome-shaped spine. Spinal deformities in elephants can be caused by malnutrition or heavy labor.

Credit: WFFT

Pai Lin, 75, has endured more agonizing pain and abuse in her long life than it is possible to fathom. For decades, she was used as a working elephant, probably in the commercial logging industry before it was banned in 1989.

After logging was banned, this tortured, tragic animal was likely used to haul as many as six tourists at a time on her back in a heavy wooden seat that would have ground relentlessly into her body.

At some point during her horrific 60-year “working career,” she was forced to beg on the streets. Her deformed spine speaks volumes about her life of abject cruelty.

This helpless animal, completely reliant on cruel humans, almost certainly lived in daily agony, but no one cared. She was making money for her owners, and to them, that was all that mattered.

For illustrative purposes only. 

Credit: Jack Board

When Pai Lin was about 60 years old, her owners finally declared her “useless,” complaining that because she was in constant pain, she was “too slow” to work.

Our partner, Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT), stepped in and now Pai Lin lives at its sanctuary – Asia’s first completely chain-free elephant haven. The forested land around the rescue center gives the elephants a chance to roam in near-natural surroundings and to socialize with other elephants. Here, they are finally given the chance to find peace and friendship.

Pai Lin is now 75, the oldest elephant our partner has rescued. She prefers to spend her days alone, quietly enjoying her hard-won freedom in the protected forest she now calls home.

Most of the rescued elephants at WFFT have experienced decades of abuse in Thailand, where cruelty towards wild animals is sickeningly common. Pai Lin, in particular, touched our hearts.

This contraption is called a “howdah.” People will sit in them and force these poor elephants to carry them and other heavy objects for hours on end.

Credit: WFFT/Amy Jones/Moving Animals

The vast majority of our partner’s 23 rescued elephants were exploited in trekking camps and/or for logging. Others were forced to perform tricks or were used for street begging. It is hard to comprehend the trauma they have experienced in their lives.

Most of these animals arrive covered in lice and wounds, severely traumatized and requiring intensive treatment and care – not to mention up to 660 pounds (300 kilograms) of food every day per elephant.

To feed their 23 elephants, WFFT needs over 15,000 pounds (almost 7,000kg) of food every day, or 227,7 tons every month.

Our partner is completely dependent on donations to provide their rescued elephants with the daily care they need, and desperately wants to give the animals the very best nutrition, treatment, enrichment and care it can. We want to help.

For illustrative purposes only. This is an example of some of the abuse Pai Lin could have endured for 60 years. 

Credit: Aaron Gekoski/Lady Thinker

Captive elephants in Thailand endure relentless, excruciating labor until they collapse in agony and exhaustion, or simply drop dead.

The survivors are hoping for your compassion today.

We really want to give Pai Lin and her fellow rescued elephant friends every bit of happiness we can – and for elephants, that starts with a delicious and varied diet of fresh fruit and vegetables, banana trees and leaves, and special, nutrient-rich pellets.

Many elephants do not survive Thailand’s brutal tourist trade. For the amusement of tourists, elephants are chained, starved and beaten, forced to work through searing pain in blistering heat, day after dismal day.

Above and below, you will see some photographs of elephants like Pai Lin, who undergo daily abuse. Unfortunately, in Thailand, there are currently no laws to prevent this abuse and mistreatment, which is why our partner works tirelessly to rescue, treat and care for the survivors.

Pai Lin endured these cruel and exhausting conditions for 60 years.

But no more.

After lives of unending suffering, will you help give Pai Lin and her friends this small kindness, which will make a huge difference in their lives?

Pai Lin in her new home.

Credit: WFFT

For every $300 (roughly £240) we raise, we can provide a month’s worth of heavenly food and treats for an elephant at WFFT. If we raise $3,000 (roughly £2,400), we can provide 99 tons of food, feeding 10 elephants for a month. Pai Lin’s particular favorites are jackfruit and papaya, and we really want to give her these delicious treats.

Pai Lin may only have a few years left, and after six decades of sheer hell, we want to make her last years the best of her life. Can she count on you for that kindness today?

Please, donate as much as you can now, and help us give this brave survivor the golden years she deserves.