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For eight years, pachyderms like Lam Duan -
old, overworked and sometimes disabled - have been rehabilitated
with music at Elephants World, a retirement sanctuary for the
animals in the western Thai province of Kanchanaburi.
Almost 80 percent of about 3,000 elephants at tourist venues in
Thailand, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal and Sri Lanka, endure
poor living conditions and diets and are overworked, according
to the animal welfare group World Animal Protection.
The animals at Elephants World get good food and treatment for
their physical ailments, but the music is an extra, special
treat they appear to love.
Several times a week, British classical pianist Paul Barton, 57,
sets up a piano against a backdrop of forested slopes and plays
for his four-legged friends.
"Maybe some of these blind elephants get a little bit of comfort
from hearing pieces of soothing classical music occasionally,"
says Barton, who studied at London's Royal Academy of Arts.
Lam Duan approached Barton as he began to play and she appeared
to calm down and focus on the music.
At another music session, several elephants seemed to move their
heads and move about in front of the piano as the notes flowed.
The owner of the sanctuary, Samart Prasithpol, 44, said the
music seemed to provide the elephants with some special comfort.
"We work here to rehabilitate the elephants physically," Smart
told Reuters.
"The use of music has been useful in rehabilitating their soul,"
he said.
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