Mahout asks media to help find elephant tail hair thieves

The managing director of the Maesa Elephant Camp in the northern province of Chaing Mai has appealed to the media to help track down thieves who broke into the camp to steal elephant hair to craft talismans.

Anchalee Kanlamapijit, the managing director of the camp, contacted Thai media yesterday and asked them to spread the news about the elephant story, adding there had been no development after they filed a complaint at the Mae Rim Police Station several months ago.

Anchalee made it known that the thieves broke in and cut about 40-50 hairs from the tails of two elephants. The first one is a 4 year old female elephant Farung, and the second is a 22 year old male elephant Phan Phet.

The 62 year old elephant keeper, Dusit Maneechuang, believes the thieves stole the tail hairs for amulet and talisman crafting. Dusit said that some superstitious Thai people believe that elephant hairs can ward off evil spirits and bad luck.

This belief is on the back of elephants using their tails to swat away insects so, Thais believe elephant tail hair can do the same thing but with bad things in their lives too.

Angry Anchalee added that the stolen hairs won’t grow back, and the theft should be considered as elephant abuse.

Some media reports made it known that the hairs from the tails of three elephants can fetch a price of up to 30,000 baht. On popular Thai e-commerce applications, consumers can buy fake elephant tail hairs for 199 baht.

SOURCE: Thairath