Plight of elephants in the Tourism Industry

I'm back again!

Now, moving off from where we left off last week, I'd like to share about the sad and heart-wrenching plight of elephants that are captured and used in the tourism industry, especially in Thailand.

Elephant rides in Thailand (Green Trial Tours, n.d.).

I remember riding on an elephant when I was really young, maybe 5 or 6 years old. It never occurred to me then or anytime soon after, how these elephants were actually "trained" to be so obedient towards their human handlers. It was only last year when I read an article on Facebook about Phajaan, the process of crushing and breaking a baby elephant's spirit.

You can watch the video here. I watched it once, but I couldn't bring myself to watch it again. It really broke my heart. The photo below actually won an award, for being able to capture the torture baby elephants with such intensity.

Award winning image taken by Brent Lewin (NBC News, 2011).

Though we aren't in the position to stop these tourism industries from using these elephants, we can do our part by stopping the demand for elephant rides. Without the demand, these industries won't survive and won't do as well and hopefully, these elephants will be released to the wild or to animal welfare groups such as the Save Elephant Foundation in Thailand to be rehabilitated as much as as possible.

Refererences:

Green Trial Tours, (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://www.asiantrailtours.com/data/frontImages/tours/tours_image/1409212776_elephant-riding-in-chiang-rai-500-5.jpg [Accessed 3 Sep. 2015].

Karsten, M. (2013). Why You Shouldn't Ride Elephants In Thailand • Expert Vagabond. [online] Expert Vagabond. Available at: http://expertvagabond.com/elephants-in-thailand/comment-page-1/#comments [Accessed 3 Sep. 2015].

NBC News, (2011). Baby elephant tortured into submission before illegal smuggling from Burma to Thailand. [online] Available at: http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/03/03/6180772-baby-elephant-tortured-into-submission-before-illegal-smuggling-from-burma-to-thailand [Accessed 3 Sep. 2015].