Millions around the world are questioning the idea behind elephant tourism and touristy activities involving captive elephants. And it is not an exaggeration. Some 32 million people around the world support a campaign driven by Save The Asian Elephants (STAE) to stop elephant tourism cruelty. But why is this the case? Isn’t it fascinating watching them perform, bathing with an elephant or even riding one?
It was not so long ago that I personally told my friends I would be going to Chitwan, a jungle in the South of Nepal, to do a safari on the back of an elephant. One of my good friends - who is an animal welfare activist - was envious. “How exciting is that!” she said. Neither of us knew - as millions of others - that in order to make an elephant work for tourists it had to go through horrors. Literally.
At first it may look harmless to ride them, but when you research and find that baby elephants are taken away from their moms (often times forever) and that they begin their "training" when they are as young as six months old in the most brutal of ways, you start asking questions.
From an early age, these majestic sentient beings go through stages of cruel training so that they fear their handlers and become submissive for the rest of their lives.
Photo by Atharva Whaval on Unsplash
Thousands of Asian elephants are doomed to a lifetime of hardship, carrying tourists on their backs -every single day- often without food or water on the searing sun. In Nepal, for example, we found out about a female working elephant in Nepal that ran away into the forest because she was afraid of her human caretakers. Days later, the owners found her and brought her back. She was beaten until she bled and was chained once again. This just is one story of so many.
Learning about all the angles of the "business" was heartbreaking. And what was just as hard was finding out that so many Western tour companies -many are members of the Association of British Travel Agencies (ABTA)- are openly promoting and profiting from this inhumane tourist model.
Elephant chained and unable to move. Photo by Benny Vincent on Unsplash
Companies like Aspen Travel and Southall Travel are currently promoting six abusive venues each. That’s 12 venues at which they are openly inviting people to come and partake in the cruel and brutal treatment of elephants. Southall in fact operates in the infamous Amber Fort in India and Chitwan National Park in Nepal where cases of abuse have made worldwide news. Another company is Audley Travel, with nine awful sites around South Asia. One of them being the Esala Perahera festival in Sri Lanka, which forces elephants to perform in costumes, adorned in heavy gear, shackled. In fact, one of its oldest enslaved elephants died as a result of exhaustion and neglect. These are just some examples of how unethical companies openly promote atrocious holiday packages, ever perpetuating the cruelty behind tourism.
Every year, thousands of British tour operators offer packages promoting riding, bathing and “games” with captive elephants. In 2018 alone, over one million British tourists visited India, according to the Indian Ministry of Tourism’s website. Hundreds of thousands of them are believed to have ridden an elephant during their holiday. Some 13 million rides took place in Thailand alone in 2016.
It is in the demand for this cruel type of entertainment that Save The Asian Elephants, a relentless British organization, saw a tremendous opportunity: to share their experience, knowledge and evidence of what happens to these majestic beings behind the scenes in order to hugely drive up public awareness. They succeeded. To date, 1,047,239 people from the world around the world have signed their petition.
According to the investigative work carried out by STAE, many companies offering brutal elephant experiences make billions of dollars. Meanwhile the elephants, literally the ones carrying the burden don’t get fed well, don’t get enough water, many silently and in agony die of tuberculosis, osteomyelitis, abuse and neglect.
Credit: Lek Chailert
STAE’s most immediate goal is new UK legislation to ban the advertising, promotion and sale of unethical venues in the Asian elephants’ home states. STAE’s aim is not only to help bring about new law but that the penalty for breaking the law should be severe and act as an effective deterrent.
Duncan McNair, STAE’s CEO shares: “No longer should large elements of the travel industry promote resorts known to use torture on elephants whilst exposing their customers to the regular and often fatal attacks by abused elephants on tourists. Broken down elephants also transmit deadly airborne viruses like TB -and we believe COVID too -to humans, another horror suppressed by the industry.”
It is with this aim that, for years, STAE has been working closely with a myriad of influential people in the Government, environmental causes, animal welfare and world renowned celebrities. Change is on its way. Just recently The Telegraph reported
”After years of campaigns from animal activists including the Prime Minister's fiancee Carrie Symonds, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has indicated that it will ban the adverts.
Under the proposals, advertising or selling low welfare tourist experiences to consumers at home that involve Asian elephants could be banned. This would include elephant rides, washing or bathing with elephants, elephant shows or bottle feeding baby elephants. All of these practices are associated with poor welfare standards.”
Discouraging tourists from going on elephant rides and paying for entertainment is crucial. They wouldn’t otherwise partake if it wasn’t available or encouraged. I believe this change can happen in our lifetime. And you?
Please add your voice to these ongoing efforts. You can:
Sign and share STAE’s petition demanding new law to ban unethical tourism ads at https://bit.ly/2DeBvu0
Watch full documentary of the plight of Asian Elephants https://vimeo.com/384543646
Watch 3 minute video The Elephants of Nong Nooch - A Modern Horror Story (3 Minute Edit)
Share the video on social media https://vimeo.com/384545068
Visit http://stae.org/help-us/10/. If a UK resident, cut and paste letters at STAE – Write to Your MP and at STAE – Write to the relevant UK Government Minister, Lord Goldsmith
Watch An Introduction to Save The Asian Elephants (STAE) with Megan McCubbin and Duncan McNair from the BBC
Tell your friends and follow STAE on Social Media!
Click on each link and connect with them today.
Facebook - Save The Asian Elephants
Twitter - @stae_elephants
Instagram stae_elephants
Thank you for being here and thank you for helping elephants!
Namaste.
Diana