Victory! Beerlao Maker Drops Xayaboury Elephant Festival Sponsorship After PETA Outreach

Vientiane — The Lao Brewery Company Ltd., producer of Beerlao and other products, has just confirmed to PETA that it will no longer sponsor the Xayaboury Elephant Festival after hearing from PETA about how elephants used in the cruel event are beaten and abused from the time they are babies. The company instead pledged funds to support true elephant conservation—which doesn’t separate elephants from their families or force them to perform for human entertainment.

Founded in 2007 by a Frenchman, the Xayaboury Elephant Festival forces elephants—who are used for logging the rest of the year—to perform demeaning tricks such as dancing and “playing” football and darts and to give rides with heavy chairs strapped to their backs. To train elephants, frightened calves are subjected to a violent training technique known as the crush, in which they’re torn from their mothers and herds, imprisoned alone, and abused to break their spirits and make them submissive to humans. Other elephants are beaten with sharp, steel-tipped bullhooks and sticks with nails embedded in them and have sharp hooks jammed into their ears to force them to comply, and they often have open wounds visible throughout the festival.

“We will stop the sponsorship immediately and to show our sincere care for the Laotian elephants, we aim instead at redirecting our sponsorship funds towards those conservation camps that are treating the elephants with care and dignity in an ethical and responsible way,” a Lao Brewery representative wrote to PETA.

“By dropping its support of this disgusting spectacle, the Lao Brewery Company is refusing to bankroll the beating and abuse of elephants and the kidnapping of their beloved calves,” says PETA Asia President Jason Baker. “PETA urges the Xayaboury Elephant Festival’s remaining sponsors to cut ties and asks everyone never to attend any event that exploits animals for entertainment.”

The Lao Brewery Company joins Thailand-based RMA Group—representing Ford, Land Rover, Quick Lane, Mahindra Rise, JCB, TCM Lift Trucks, and John Deere—which previously pulled support of the festival after hearing from PETA.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that when it comes to the ability to feel pain, hunger, and fear, an elephant is a dog is a boy. For more information, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow PETA Asia on X, Facebook, or LinkedIn.