Sangduen "Lek" Chailert
Sangdeaun “Lek” Chailert was born in 1961. She was born in a village in Thailand called Baan Lao. This village was located in the Northern Mountains of Thailand. Starting from a young age, she spent a lot of time with animals and loved them. She looked up to her grandfather. He was a shaman, which is a traditional healer. He helped sick and injured people within his community, and would also help sick animals. Chailert helped her grandfather take care of the animals. She developed a passion for it. She witnessed the horrible abuse of elephants when she was sixteen years old. The elephants were forced to carry logs into the jungle. Chailert graduated from Chiang Mai University, a public university in Northern Thailand.