Elephants abused for tourist show

When I went to Thailand a few years ago, I had a chance to watch exciting elephant show and ride. I witnessed elephants dancing, playing football, and even painting.  It looked like elephants were enjoying the process as well.  However, after hearing about various ways elephants were abused while being trained for the show I felt very sorry for the elephants and disturbed for the abuse they had to go through.

Elephants are essential in Thailand to attract visitors and for tourist trades. Behind the scenes, they use many torture methods to transform them from wild animals into obedient and tourist friendly creatures. In addition, many elephants are abused to get prepared for a circus. One of the methods of abuse was chaining the elephants into a confined pen that is way too small for the elephant to move. Then they constantly beat the animal with sharp instruments and they starve them for days or even weeks. This kind of torture makes the elephants’ mental strength collapse and sometimes takes away their sanity as well. Sadly, about 95% of Thailand’s animals are domesticated working animals ,while in Africa they are set free to roam around like they are supposed  to.

This form of elephant abuse was also detected out side of Thailand as well.  Other countries with similar elephant circus have halted their use of elephants in the show to prevent the abuse. For example, The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & and Bailey Circus announced that they will stop using elephants from 2018. In addition, all activities involving elephants were banned in Las Vegas recently. In order to protect the innocent elephants around the globe, any performances promoting animal abuse should all be prohibited.
 
The way we can help is by not watching these type of shows or circus as it would help prevent people from economically benefitting from them. We may also inform others about the reality of elephant cruelty in our society and find ways to protect these elephants.



Source : www.wildlifeextra.com, www.google.com
Images : Google images

Posted by Justin,Chung