Tourists planning to ride elephants in Thailand are being urged to think again as photos of the alleged abuse towards the animals have gone viral on Twitter this week.
While the Thai government discourages elephant rides, these attractions reportedly persist in some tourist locations across the country, subjecting the animals to unimaginable torture from a young age.
The photos, which were first posted in April, are believed to have been taken in Phuket.
The images show the elephants with gut-wrenching wounds on their heads and bodies, presumably inflicted by keepers training them for business with sharp metal canes.
“Baby elephants are taken from their mothers, tied down and beaten so severely that they bleed and scream, all in order to force them to perform ridiculous tricks for tourists.”
Subscribe to NextShark's Newsletter
A daily dose of Asian America's essential stories, in under 5 minutes.
Get our collection of Asian America's most essential stories to your inbox daily for free.
In 2014, international watchdog Traffic reported that some of the elephants come from Myanmar. Young elephants are “mentally broken and prepared for training” before being put on the market.
“In Myanmar, domesticated elephants are used to corral wild animals into pits where older protective members of herds are often killed and the higher value, younger animals taken. The young are then transported to Thai-Myanmar border areas and then mentally broken and prepared for training before being sold into the tourism industry in Thailand where they are put to work at tourist camps or hotels.”
Many people might not know this, but NextShark is a small media startup that runs on no outside funding or loans, and with no paywalls or subscription fees, we rely on help from our community and readers like you.
Everything you see today is built by Asians, for Asians to help amplify our voices globally and support each other. However, we still face many difficulties in our industry because of our commitment to accessible and informational Asian news coverage.
We hope you consider making a contribution to NextShark so we can continue to provide you quality journalism that informs, educates, and inspires the Asian community. Even a $1 contribution goes a long way. Thank you for supporting NextShark and our community.