Thai elephants get potty training: report *PIC*

BANGKOK (AFP) - Having taught Thailand's elephants to paint, dance and play musical instruments, their Thai handlers are now toilet-training the beasts, media reported.

Handlers -- known as mahouts -- have installed giant human-style toilets at a camp in the northern city of Chiang Mai to try to rid the tourist attraction of unsightly droppings, according to the Nation newspaper.

Some seven elephants at the privately run camp beside Chiang Mai Zoo are being trained to sit like a human on the giant white toilets, which can be flushed by pulling on a rope with a gentle tug of the trunk, said the daily.

It showed a picture of a five-year-old elephant named Diew testing out one of the oversized concrete toilets, which has been fitted with equally jumbo-sized plumbing.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1516&ncid=1516&e=1&u=/afp/20050119/od_afp/thailandelephantsoffbeat_050119111117

who has to unclog the toilet.

BTW, where do you get a magazine big enough for these guys?

cute trick & photo-op but practicality, nada. Take it from a former elephant keeper, those animals crap all of the time, it's the nature of their digestive system. ALL OF THE TIME!

for big bucks....free enterprise...free elephant poo... money in our pockets. A win-win situation.

They prize the stuff.

minus the book, of course.