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| 18 Elephants Get Ready for 14th Annual King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Bangkok, Thailand |
BANGKOK, THAILAND, Feb.
18, 2016 -- Mark it in your diaries, Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas is
announcing the 2016 dates for the highly popular charity event – The King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament.
This year’s event will be
held by the banks of Bangkok’s mighty Chaophraya River from March 10th – 13th
and promises to have a range ele-fantastic fun for the whole family.
Now in its fourteenth
year, the tournament has become one of the biggest charitable events in
Southeast Asia.
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| "Open wide now and let me check your teeth, please" |
Almost US$1 million has
been raised and donated to projects that better the lives of Thailand’s wild
and domesticated elephant population, including continued support for research and clinics using elephants in therapy
sessions for children living with autism; donating a gantry to help lame
elephants stand and a purpose built elephant ambulance to the Thai Elephant
Conservation Centre (TECC), and donating an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) to the
Government Elephant Hospital in Krabi.
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| "Get ready...get set...Go!" |
Other projects include
funding farmer/elephant conflict mitigation projects in three Thai and one
Tanzanian National Park; planting 4,000 trees to form an elephant proof fence
in Thailand; fully funding the
protection of 18,000 hectares of standing forest in Cambodia’s Cardamom
Mountains; funding the roll out of children’s educational programmes with the
Thai Ministry to teach them the importance of conservation and protection of
wild elephants in Thailand and funding the world’s first Target Training
Positive Reinforcement Workshops teaching mahouts and trainers throughout
Southeast Asia elephant friendly training methods.
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| "Halt...for the Beauty Parade" |
This year’s event will
have 10 teams encompassing over 40 players, including Thai celebrities,
professional horse polo players, New Zealand All Blacks rugby players and
Thailand’s famous transgender cabaret team Miss
Tiffany.
A total of 18 elephants
will be given a break from their work in tourist trekking camps in Pattaya or
bought from unemployment in Surin to take part in the festival, during which
they are given much needed food, essential vitamin supplements, full veterinary
checks and care for the duration of the event.
Domestic elephants are
micro-chipped by the Thai government to show that they have not been caught
from the wild.
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| "Coming up Roses" |
The worst trekking camps
can be tough for an elephant. In order to make money, mahouts are forced to
work their elephants 10 – 12 hours a day.
Conversely, at home in
Surin, unemployment means elephants are often left isolated from other
elephants with a short chain on two legs 24 hours a day with no exercise or
enrichment. In both circumstances, the poverty of existence means their owners
cannot afford to feed them anything close to their daily physical needs,
emotional needs are forgotten, and shade and sufficient water are often
overlooked.
The King’s Cup schedule is
designed to give these trekking elephants rest and relaxation on a scale they
are never afforded in their ‘normal’ lives and ensure elephant rest time with
interaction and enrichment that neither set of elephants gets in their daily
lives.
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| Miss Tiffany |
The four day festival will
have something for everyone including an impressive Opening Parade, Children’s
Educational Day, Ladies Day known as the ‘Bangkok
Ascot’ and a wide range of fun elephant related activities for the whole
family.
Anantara has long been
associated with elephant conservation efforts with the formation of The Golden
Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, which has performed over 40 rescues of
elephants off the streets of Thailand, as well as bringing the hugely
successful Elephant Parade to Bangkok where 88 elephant statues were decorated
by local and international celebrities and artists to honour Thailand’s HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s
88th birthday and will be auctioned off in a gala dinner in February 2016.
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| Thailand HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 88th birthday Celebrated |
For more information on
the 14th Annual King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament, please visit www.anantaraelephantpolo.com.
For a complete copy of the
company’s news release, please contact:
Hwee Peng Yeo
Vice President, Asia
Markets
Glodow Nead Communications
San Francisco • New York •
Singapore • Shanghai
Level 21, Centennial
Tower, 3 Temasek Avenue • Singapore 039190
Level 15, One Corporate
Avenue, 222 Hubin Road, Shanghai China, 200021
1700 Montgomery Street,
Suite 203 • San Francisco, CA • 94111
Asia: 65.9768.6087 US:415.394.6500 • E: hweepeng@glodownead.com
杨慧萍
副总裁
博德纳公关咨询公司
Centennial Tower 21层，Temasek Avenue 3号， 新加坡邮区039190
上海湖滨路222号企业天地一号15层，中国邮编20021
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