WSPA: Get off the elephant!
It seems so much fun: taking a trip on the back of an elephant or visiting a s how with these mighty animals. It is not without reason that many travel organizations offer these types of excursions. 'An unforgettable experience,' according to the advertising slogans. Unfortunately, the experience is especially unforgettable for the elephant itself. WSPA is therefore taking action with the campaign 'Step off the elephant!' and calls on tourists to travel in an elephant-friendly way.
The hard truth
Although capturing elephants is illegal, the number of elephants 'working' in the tourism industry is still growing. In Burma alone, about a hundred, mostly young, elephants are captured each year for this highly lucrative trade. The mother and sometimes aunts of the young elephant are often killed because they try to protect the young. After the elephant is taken away from its mother, the animal is tied up, starved and abused for days to break its willpower. When the animal is sufficiently 'trained' to be used as a tourist attraction, it is often prodded in sensitive areas to enforce obedience. And although an elephant can pull up to 1.000 kilos, the vertebrae are not built to carry one or more tourists on its back, which causes the elephant pain and damage. Outside of duty hours, the elephant is permanently chained, a miserable position for these social animals accustomed to roaming freely in herds.
Tourists in action!
The vast majority of tourists who take an elephant ride or visit an elephant s how do not know the misery behind this. WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals) wants to increase this awareness among Dutch travelers and is therefore now taking action with the campaign 'Get off the elephant!' On the campaign site www.wspa.nl/olifant, travelers can pledge not to take elephant rides and visit elephant shows during their holidays. And to convince other travelers too, everyone can take a special 'Get off the elephant!' Request a sticker and luggage tag via this website to spread the message while traveling. The site also contains information and tips for an elephant-friendly holiday. Our advice is to only view elephants in their natural environment, so you can be sure that you are not contributing to elephant suffering.
Elephant Friendly Checklist:
- Elephant show? Do not! Elephants often undergo brutal training and severe physical and mental abuse.
- Elephant ride? Don't step up! You wouldn't say it, but an elephant's back is too weak to carry humans.
- Elephant on a chain? Not animal friendly! Elephants are often fixed for a large part of the day and all night.
- Does the mahout use a hook? Animal abuse! The hook is used in sensitive areas to reinforce pain commands.
- Are elephants bred? Alarm! Baby elephants attract visitors, but they are unlikely to ever be released into the jungle.
Do you like elephants? Then just watch them in a natural environment and get off the elephant.
Travel companies: stop elephant rides – and s hows
WSPA has been calling on Dutch travel organizations for several years to remove elephant rides and lessons from their travel offerings. Market leader TUI Netherlands, known for the brands Arke, Holland International and KRAS.NL, has been offering only elephant-friendly excursions for some time now. Travel organization Oad Reizen responded to WSPA's call in September 2012 and promised to adjust its trips and excursion programs. WSPA believes that more travel organizations should follow these good examples and will urge them to do so in the near future. Like African elephants, Asian elephants are an endangered species. There are very few of them left around, especially in the wild. An extra reason to take care of these beautiful animals and opt for elephant-friendly holidays!
Elephant facts
Did you know that elephants:
- are the largest mammals to walk the earth? And heavy too, they can weigh up to 7 tons!
- have more than 100.000 muscles in their trunks, which they use to collect food, produce warning sounds and sometimes even as a snorkel?
- have the longest gestational age of any animal? They are 22 months pregnant, that's almost 2 years!
- live to be 60 or 70 years old? So they live almost as long as humans.
- are wild animals that are not fit to live in captivity?
More information: www.wspa.nl/olifant
It has been written about several times on the blog. Still, hordes are still walking
tourists (also Dutch) on those beautiful animals and visit the shows.
I'm not participating in that anymore.
Cor van Kampen.
My first Thailand holidays I also did several elephant tours. By now I know better. I don't participate anymore either.
Fortunately, we no longer participate in it ourselves, unfortunately we also participated in it ourselves on vacations and this was quite an experience to have experienced it.
I would say do it now or not a 2nd time.
I once let myself be tempted, but already regretted it when I sat on that elephant. The mahout was indeed jabbing/beating the elephant all the time, and I felt like a stupid tourist sitting in such a retarded bowl on top of that poor animal doing the rounds that the elephant probably has to make several times day in, day out. Since then I advise against it to everyone.
I did too but didn't know it was that bad. Won't happen now!
Last month I enjoyed a wonderful alternative in Kanchanaburi, the management there is in the hands of a sweet Dutch lady…
http://elephantsworld.org/en/index.php
I don't agree. I stayed at an elephant camp for 4 months and could only see that the animals are treated very well. Every elephant has its own mahout and he spends the whole day with the animal: feeding, going to the river to drink, disinfecting wounds, and "talking" with the animal all day long.
That an elephant's back is too weak to carry two people is too stupid to argue. The elephants enjoy making rides, rather than doing nothing all day. In Pai, the elephants go into the river and spray the tourists with their trunks and throw them off their backs into the river. And anyone who knows elephants can clearly see that they are having a good time.
If all tourists followed your advice, how much unemployment and misery will you cause to people. A person is still more important than an animal, which does not mean that animals should not be treated well.
Extreme viewpoints sometimes turn every value scale upside down.
What nonsense. Some people are certainly not more important than animals in my eyes. There are plenty of people who misbehave in a beastly way. It has been shown that the elephant's back is not as strong as people think. I also made a ride on the back of an elephant the first time in Thailand, if I had known then what I know now I would never have got on it. In the Phuket Zoo they have an elephant show where the animals play football and basketball during the show. They seem very happy there, but I would also be happy if the chain could be taken off my ankle for a while.
If you want a pleasant experience with elephants, go to the Royal kraal in Ayuttahya. Ok, the elephants there also live in relative captivity, but are mostly not chained and they are treated in a pleasant and respectful way. You can also ride on it together with an attendant, but the animal does not get a couch tied on its back, you have to be on it, sitting right behind it, ... well no, ... it is usually her head, and then you can take you into the river to bathe them. A fantastic experience !!!
I myself, (after some instruction), was allowed to play with a 5 months old elephant, and let it suck on my hand, you will never forget it !! it was actually my most beautiful experience in Thailand.
(Do not confuse the Royal bead with another elephant event in Ayutthaya, because there is also a place where they let elephants do circus tricks, which is not very nice for an animal lover)
Excuse me? Didn't thousands of elephants work in agriculture and forestry not so long ago? Didn't the Thai 'armored troops' once consist of elephant divisions, a few of which the Thai king offered to his British colleague during the First World War?
WSPA…a vague corn-wolf scent of self-appointed inquisitors with neo-colonial aspirations. That finger, that finger...
@braadijs, always nice to see that criticism of Thailand works like a red rag to a bull for many Thailand fanatics. We can continue like this and trivialize things. About a century ago, dogs were also used for carts every day, which often led to abuse, but don't we have much better solutions for that? Or horses were used in war and often injured and mutilated. Do you think we should just continue to put animals at the mercy of people? Although it is not always noticeable, humanity has become a little wiser in some areas? Have you ever seen how 1 modern forestry tractor in a forest fells a tree in a few seconds, removes the branches and then places them somewhere neatly? I don't see a Thai elephant doing that. I will receive criticism, but using an elephant in forestry today in this age of mechanization is outdated, and it seems to have become more of a tourist attraction. I have also seen those elephant rides, but I was already against the preparation. I saw young elephants making paintings that were offered for sale to tourists at outrageous prices. Just because you think a country is beautiful, my wife is from there (I don't live there) does not mean that you should accept everything uncritically and that you should not question certain things.
People who claim in the above messages that the elephant rides do no harm to the elephants and the population are not wise.
read well on the internet and you know enough. The whole world is going to hell because of people like that who claim it's not too bad. It won't be long before you can only view these kinds of animals on photo and film. There are indeed enough alternatives that do not harm the elephant population. And now tell me honestly. What could be better than simply admiring the animals in the wild. There are plenty of examples of animals on the verge of extinction. And as long as economic interests are always given higher priorities than nature conservation, the green-blue planet will perish. The only thing that can save this earth is a huge pandemic. But fortunately we are also unconsciously developing it. Let's get the discussion going right now. The tone has been set. Don't mention it.
Thank you.
Such things are not well known.
It seemed so innocent, but apparently it isn't.
That way you learn something every time.
fri. greeting
Ronald
Pilou has a number of truths. Also remember that since it is no longer allowed to cut down in the Thai forests, many elephants become unemployed and are transferred to the tourist industry instead. to be killed.Better a ride on the elephant than to let these animals walk through the big cities which is really torture.Many elephant camps treat their animals with love.Unfortunately some of them are only concentrated on making profit.Some relativity in the assessment about elephant torture seems appropriate. It's not just as black as the WSPA claims.
@Cú Chulainn
At the risk of 'hating', let's say this: You are absolutely right to conclude that you should not accept everything uncritically and that you can always question certain things. That's what the free world was built on. But so do the claims and the apparent 'mission' of WSPA. As far as I know, elephants are not made of porcelain: robust colossi, made over the centuries for nothing small. Is it scientifically established that the jumbos cannot handle a container with two people on their backs? If not, then they are not facts but statements. There will certainly be serious abuse. But then focus on the miscreants who do that, instead of tarring everything and everyone with the same brush. My irritation is with clubs that scour the world looking for an 'abuse' to sink their teeth into. To prove their right to exist and keep the donations going. The do-good industry, throwing around exclamation marks but allergic to a question mark.