Standing in the scorching sun, forced to walk with metal hooks, chains digging into their flesh – this is the brutal reality of elephants being used in tourism in Thailand. And British tourists are unwittingly playing a role in their suffering. There are more than 200 unethical elephant camps in Thailand, where tourists take selfies with these majestic animals or climb on their backs for rides through the jungle.
The first step is to force the beasts into a kraal, or “crushing cage.” This is a wooden structure designed to hold the elephant so tightly in a cage that it cannot move. The trainers then starve the animal and keep it awake for days before beating it with wooden sticks designed to cause the most pain possible. The animals endure this brutality for at least six months, all day long, until their spirits are so broken that they begin to completely obey the trainers.
About half of the elephants die in the process, while the rest end up taking tourists, performing tricks in shows, or being lavishly dressed for parades.
The lives of these elephants include much pain, fear, dehydration, malnutrition, abuse, suffering and humiliation. Many are on the verge of death and are regularly beaten with a hook. With its metal spike and curved blade, this weapon would not look out of place on a medieval battlefield.
Signs at Khao Kheow Zoo say that the elephants here are chained as a safety measure for visitors, “because they can be very aggressive.”
The reality is very bleak, with many elephants swaying from side to side, an indicator of stress and ill health, and chained so that they have almost no room to move.
Eliza Allen, PETA’s vice president of programs, said: “There is no excuse for the mistreatment of elephants! Elephants perform uncomfortable, confusing, and even painful tricks and allow themselves to be ridden only for training that involves fear and harsh punishment. They live in conditions of total exploitation, are often denied food and water for many hours, and are kept in chains, unable to take more than a step in any direction unless they are forced to do something for the benefit of humans.”
At the Khao Kheow “sanctuary” in Thailand, captive elephants are forced into a large glass tank to swim its entire length underwater repeatedly in front of rows of staring, laughing crowds. Baby elephants are stabbed in the heads with spikes to force them to dive underwater.
While elephant tourism has flourished in the region, the global population of these majestic animals has plummeted to just 40,000. More than 40 percent are held in captivity, most enslaved, enduring daily abuse as a reminder of the torture they endured in their childhoods to ensure their obedience to the demands of the tourism industry. Physically and mentally broken, they live only half their natural lifespan.