Soraida Salwala opened the world’s first Asian Elephant Hospital in Lampang, Thailand in 1993 to treat elephants that are ill or injured as a result of work, abuse or neglect. To date, she and her staff have treated over 3,000 elephants for everything from eye infections to knife wounds, gunshot wounds, broken bones, drug addictions and building prosthetic limbs for the survivors of landmine accidents. Since then, the Asian Elephant population in Thailand declined from 40,000 to less than 2,600 left in captivity.