Liva, Thanks so much for your kind words, e also loved having you here you did a great job and really contributed to the care of the elephants whilst you were here, even if such a short stay we really cannot thank you enough for your help. So Thank you for choosing to volunteer at Millennium Elephant Foundation. We hope to see you again in the future and we hope you enjoyed the rest of your travels in Sri Lanka Kind Regards and lots of love All @ Millennium Elephant Foundation

Thank you so much for taking time to write a review for us, we are so pleased that you enjoyed the experience Thanks for your positive comments about tipping, i am sorry that you were asked for tips during your visit, this is not something we encourage, but you are correct the Mahout salary is very low and they work long hours and very hard to take care of the elephants and to keep tourists safe. So thank you for your generosity. We are so pleased you enjoyed your experience, thank you so much for visiting us, we hope the rest of your trip in Sri Lanka was just as memorable Kind Regards Millennium Elephant Foundation

Thank you so much for taking the time and writing a review for us. I will pass your lovely comments on personally to Jas for doing such a great job. We are so happy that you enjoyed your experience and chose to do the elephnat walk experience over the elephnat riding option. Please continue sharing your experience with friends/family and fellow travellers alike to spread as much awareness as you can about our cause and the alternative to elephnat riding option Thanks so much for your feedback and support We hope the rest of your trip in Sri Lanka is just as memorable Kind Regards Millennium Elephant Foundation

I am so so so sorry to hear such a negative review and feel awful that you did not take time to read the museum our website and were not educated properly by our guides during your visit to find out why things are the way they are here and what really happens before forming such a strong opinion. The family here have been running this NGO since the 90s and are dedicated to the improvement of welfare of domesticated elephants in Sri Lanka. We are not a money making scam, we rely on the money from tourists and volunteers to keep the place sustainable. We do not promote elephnat riding in fact its something we are working very hard to try and move away from. First on our menu at the entrance is the elephant walk experience, and advertised all over our website. Sadly we can not just stop the riding until our numbers increase as we rely on the income to keep up our work. Our work includes running a mobile veterinary unit which travels around the country on call when needed treating any sick elephnat at no cost to the owner, a human elephnat conflict program and community development we fund in Habarana and also the care, treatment and housing of all our 9 resident elephants (7 of which have been rescued from worse of situations such as neglect,howdah tourism industry or the logging industry Sadly we are not a national park, they are not wild animals they are domesticated working elephants who have been captive for majority of their lives. Again sincere apologies for such a poor experience and im sorry that no-one explained our hardwork to you or that you didn't have the opportunity to read our museum PLEASE CAN ALL FUTURE VISITORS TAKE TIME TO READ THE MUSEUM AND ASK QUESTIONS. THANK YOU SO SO MUCH MILLENNIUM ELEPHANT FOUNDATION

Thanks so much for taking the time to write a review. We are very happy that you enjoyed your experience with us. Apologies for the staff, if you can remember any of the guides/mahouts/elephants names or have photographs of them so that i can identify them i will certainly be happy to address this issue with them as this is not behaviour we condole, and we are aware they still ask, but we are desperately trying to crack down on this to ensure a pleas can experience for our guests. Many Thanks Millennium Elephant Foundation

Thank you so much for your positive response. I really appreciate the feedback. Im not sure we have many tour guides review us. Please post me some of your business cards and email me your company logo as we would also love to be able to support your work and promote you to our volunteers and visitors as responsible tourism is something you obviously care about and we aim to attract more guides with this interest.

Thank you for your lovely review, so happy you and your family enjoyed it. If you would like to support our hard work for these animals in the future please visit our website under the how you can help tab for fundraising ideas and how to get involved in our adopt an elephant membership (make great gifts and the kids love them : ) ) Hope the rest of your holiday was just as fun. Thanks os much for taking the time to write a review for us

Its so so sad for us to here such a false opinion of our place after spending only a few minutes here. After 18 years as a foundation improving the welfare of domestic elephants and the 2 years of me working here i can assure you the facts are very much different I am so sorry you were given no explanations to our work here. Or that you had no time to read our museum. Please if you have any pictures or can remember your guides name please email them to me so we can have a word with him about your experience as this is not at all what we want for our visitors. same for whoever was harassing you for tips as our foundation does not promote or condole this so we want to come down on those who are breaking our rules and setting bad examples. so sorry none of this was explained to you during our visit this will be raised as an issue with our tour guides so we do appreciate the feedback For future visitors please please please ask questions if you have any concerns or need anything clarifying. As one of our guides or if you are not satisfied ask to speak to one of our volunteers or a member of management who will be happy to take the time to educate you on all the good work we are doing here

I am so so so sorry to hear such a negative review and feel awful that the end of your trip ended with bad feeling If you have any videos,pictures or can remember the same or description of staff that you feel were pushy/rude/angry send details to me as this treatment to our guests is totally unacceptable and the issue will be escalated and they will be personally told off about this. Please elaborate on the place being run down and what gave you the impression the elephants are not taken good care of?? Being a foreigner myself i understand you are not used to keeping elephants or taming elephants so when you see the chains, the ankus etc it can be off putting and send out the wrong messages. Please be assured though these precautions are used for safety and control only and not for absuse.They are traditional training methods used in Sri Lanka for hundreds of years that will not phase out any time now. The chains weigh approx 60kg and cause no harm to the elephnat who can comfortably carry over 10 times this amount Again sincere apologies for such a poor experience and im sorry that noone explained our hardwork to you or that you didn't have the opportunity to read our museum PLEASE CAN ALL FUTURE VISITORS TAKE TIME TO READ THE MUSEUM AND ASK QUESTIONS. THANK YOU SO SO MUCH MILLENNIUM ELEPHANT FOUNDATION

This is exactly how i feel which is why i have stayed almost 2 years so nice for our volunteers to give our readers honest feedback of what really goes on here Thank you so much for your hardwork during your stay and that you so much for taking the time to leave a review