Thailand: Elephants 'broken' to perform activities for tourists

In an instance of animal cruelty, elephants in Thailand have been subject to abuse and 'broken' to perform activities for tourists such as Sports, painting and dance. According to reports, these animals are separated from their mothers, pierced with metal hooks and in some cases not provided with enough food. It has long been observed that Thai elephants have been forcibly tamed and sold to bidders in order to be used for tourism purposes.

Elephants subject to animal cruelty in Thailand

According to reports, elephants are traditionally trained in the village of Ban Ta Klang located in the east of Thailand. Elephants in this village are tamed and forced to learn tricks to entertain millions of tourists who flock to Thailand every year. Completely refuting claims of animal abuse, villagers who have been working with these elephants have said that it is imperative to tame these animals for safety reasons and that the force they use is not excessive in nature. One of the villagers has said that they do not raise elephants to cause any form of harm to them.

A villager by the name of Charin earns about $350 per month and added that he has lived with elephants all his life but experts in the field of animal welfare have a completely different opinion about the taming technique these villagers use. These experts are of the opinion that separating a baby elephant from their mothers is a very young age is a very cruel technique to be implemented in today's time.

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A tamed elephant can cost up to $80,000 for people who want to use them for commercial purposes. An elephant, Suda, is said to be popular among the tourists because she holds a brush in her trunk and paints Japanese-style paintings. According to reports, 220 elephants have been identified across Thailand only a handful of them have witnessed living in living conditions of a satisfactory nature.

However, authorities are a bit apprehensive of releasing the elephants in the wild due to potential animal-human conflicts. According to reports, a committee comprising numerous animal welfare associations gave their recommendations to the Thailand government, forcing them to implement stringent measures to put a stop to animal abuse against elephants.

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Attempt to help elephants

A small organisation by the name of ChangChill has changed its methods over the past few months and has now given the tamed elephants more space, fewer public interactions and an environment replicating their natural habitat. ChagChill's director, Chiang Mai, said that they never force the elephants to do something that the animals are not in favour of doing. He further added that this has resulted in the animals being less sick and has also reduced accidents with tourists as the stress among these elephants has decreased.

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(With inputs from agencies)