They are the country’s icon – but behind the dazzle of religious festivals and tourist ‘attractions’, these giants of the wild are painfully abused in Thailand.
Some Elephants in Thailand are captured from the wild or bred in captivity and then forced to perform like monkeys to humans for the rest of their lives. When small they are beaten with sticks until they are broken, like a horse, or else they would not do what the humans tell them.
When small they are beaten with sticks until they are broken.
When they are not performing they are shackled in chains and when they come into heat or ‘musk’ they are re-beaten again to make them tame – THIS IS THE REALITY of your trip to see the Elephants in Thailand! Please do not support captive Elephants and only visit the ones that are free and not shackled – humans paying these people only make this continue – if we cut our money off, they will not continue doing this.
ALL temple Elephants are shackled and beaten – do not be tricked into thinking they are not.
When You Buy A Ticket They Suffer
I WILL STAND UP AND NOT BE AFRAID
I will stand up and not be afraid Of those who ask why I share the Elephants suffering And show them on video coloured pink
I do it, Not because I support what I see I do it, Not to encourage you to go I do it, Not so you find the link To the website advertising such horror shows
I do it, To remind those that have a life That many who walk amongst us Are suffering at the hands of man Because humans say they can As there is no law to fight And animals have no rights
I do it, So the voiceless will be heard. I do it, To show you that it it is wrong of man To sink so low as to abuse these magnificent beasts So you may feast Upon the evil show Now you know.
Sadly, the person clapping knows The Elephants do not love these shows These Elephants are forced to perform for your enjoyment They have been abused since very young With bull hooks and chains To force them to obey A command by the human, Which destroys their natural ways And makes them servants of man
I call the Elephants slaves to its mahout Because they cannot call a halt to the video shoot Because they cannot escape the strife That is their life.
Rachel Bose.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP ANIMALS IN NEED
You can support our work by donating as little as £5 – It only takes a minute but it can last a lifetime for an animal in need.
Everyone who donates will receive a Certificate of Appreciation as a thank you for helping animals in need.
The Mission of Protect All Wildlife is to prevent cruelty and promote the welfare of ALL animals.
We believe EVERY animal should be treated with respect, empathy, and understanding. We raise awareness to protect and conserve wild, captive, companion and farm animals.
It is vital that we protect animals against acts of cruelty, abuse, and neglect by enforcing established animal welfare laws and, when necessary, take action to ensure that those who abuse animals are brought to justice.
Protect All Wildlife are involved in many projects to protect animals’ rights, welfare, and habitats. Money contributed to Protect All Wildlife supports ALL of our worthy programmes and gives us the flexibility to respond to emerging needs. Your donations make our work possible.
In May 2019, Botswana’s President Masisi justified the decision to recommence trophy hunting by emphasising that local communities will be guaranteed more than just menial jobs and enjoy sustainable wildlife management’s economic benefits.
A Bull Elephant shot in Botswana – a so-called ‘100 pounder’.
As the passage of the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill moves to the Committee Stage of the House of Lords, a suite of amendments has been tabled for deliberation. These amendments include amending the Bill from a blanket ban to a case-by-case assessment of trophies imported into the United Kingdom based on whether they contribute to the conservation of wildlife and human economic upliftment.
For example: Amendment Clause 2(d) states that hunting imports may only be granted if:
“a hunting area where the hunting operator can demonstrate that financial or non-financial benefits of trophy hunting materially contributes to the conservation of the trophy hunted species, including habitat protection, anti-poaching measures, and support for community livelihoods.”
A Shopping List For Trophy Hunters
At face value, this appears to be equitable. Ignoring the obvious ethical dispute, if trophy hunting can be proven to benefit the conservation of wildlife and human livelihoods, then perhaps it may be a case to consider. However, the problem in the majority of trophy hunting cases, and in most countries where trophy hunting takes place, the activity not only is wholly unable to benefit wildlife and human communities, but precipitates the opposite.
Botswana, one of the major destinations for trophy hunters, is a particular case in point.
The southern African nation has been promoted by some in the House of Lords as an example of a trophy hunting ‘success.’ So much so that a high-level delegation of government officials from Botswana, including a minister, an ambassador and a wildlife department head of authority were invited to the House of Lords in June 2023 to make a case for the benefits of trophy hunting in their country. Yet, serious questions surround Botswana’s ability to adequately regulate trophy hunting and provide any meaningful benefits for communities living among and alongside wildlife.
Field investigations, in-person interviews and literature, financial audit, international policy document reviews have been undertaken over the course of a year to assess the validity that Botswana can provide meaningful and tangible benefits to its wildlife and people. This is a summary of the results:
On an international level, the country has been flagged for non-compliance under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) due to its failure to submit annual reports, which provide crucial information for validating offtake of elephants for trophies for the international trophy trade. This indicates that the wildlife conservation in Botswana is not adequately managed.
Hunting quotas are not based on scientific data. A total quota of 356 Elephants and 74 Leopards are on the Wildlife Hunting Quota List for 2023. These figures are regarded as abnormally high. The list also includes Zebra, Buffalo, Ostrich, Wildebeest, Kudu, Eland, Gemsbok, Warthog, Baboon, and Lechwe.
There is evidence of widespread unethical hunting practices including over-use of already overly high quotas, fraudulent practices, corruption, baiting, and hunting near and within photographic tourism zones. As well as the deployment of aerial support to search for large tuskers and killing Elephant bulls near artificial waterholes.
Trophy hunting activities in Botswana are forcing communities, which are expected to rely on the proceeds of trophy hunting, into a perpetual cycle of impoverishment and economic disenfranchisement. Trophy hunting obstructs the development of more meaningful activities like photographic tourism while the proceeds from trophy hunting are so miniscule that individual community members are practically receiving nothing.
There is also widespread evidence of corruption and mismanagement of funds generated by the Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) system in areas centred on trophy hunting as the main economic activity. The mismanagement and corruption are directly linked to trophy hunting.
The current government has revoked scientific research permits of organisations that have been committed to providing peer reviewed scientific data on the conservation status and ecology of Elephants and suppress those that have dared to voice concern over unsustainable and unethical hunting practices.
An aerial photograph of a butchered Elephant, shot by trophy hunters in Botswana.
The adult Elephant Bull (above) has been stripped of its body-parts. The trunk has been hacked off. There are large portions of the Elephant’s skin cut off. All four feet have been removed – presumably to make foot / table stools (the Botswana president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, (in)famously gave Elephant foot stools to the presidents of neighbouring countries at an Elephant Management meeting in Kasane in 2019). The tusks and skull have been taken to a taxidermy. These body parts represent the prize – the trophy – that the hunter was after, and which will be displayed on a wall in their home in Europe or America or Asia. There is also some flesh cut off on the flanks of one side, possibly to provide some meat for the trackers and skinners as a ‘tip’.
It has been claimed in Botswana that trophy hunting is only undertaken in ‘marginal’ wilderness areas that are not deemed viable for photographic tourism. It is also claimed that attempts to convert trophy hunting areas not viable for photographic tourism into photographic tourism areas is a challenge. Areas that are deemed not viable for photographic tourism are remoteness, lower densities of wildlife and monotonous natural landscapes. In these spaces, trophy hunting becomes a necessary evil as the sole provider of revenue for remote communities living within and alongside wildlife.
And yet, this Elephant was shot in a hunting concession (NG41) that is neatly wedged between two national parks – Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe National Park. These two parks are globally renowned for photographic tourism and are consequently brimming with tourists wanting to photograph what Botswana showcases best – wildlife. The fact that that this Elephant was shot right in the middle of these tourist hotspots makes a mockery of the claim that trophy hunting in Botswana only takes place in marginal areas.
The Wall Of Death: A Hunter’s ‘Trophy’ Room
The standard narrative from hunters and their proponents is that trophy hunting is an essential conservation tool that, if conducted ‘ethically’, preserves endangered wildlife and provides revenue for impoverished communities living in marginalised areas where photographic tourism is absent. Yet as this case shows, as they all do, that narrative is a false one. Stripped of its protective fairy-tale veil, the true face of trophy hunting lays bare, a narcissistic bloodlust of a few depraved individuals who care little for ethics, community upliftment or wildlife conservation. ~ Adam Cruise.
In The Trophy Hunter’s Sights: Botswana’s Elephants
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP WILDLIFE:
You can support ‘Protect All Wildlife’ by donating as little as £1 – It only takes a minute but it can last a lifetime for an animal in need. Please donate below.
Everyone who donates will receive a Certificate of Appreciation as a thank you for helping animals in need.
The Mission of Protect All Wildlife is to prevent cruelty and promote the welfare of ALL animals.
We believe EVERY animal should be treated with respect, empathy, and understanding. We raise awareness to protect and conserve wild, captive, companion and farm animals.
It is vital that we protect animals against acts of cruelty, abuse, and neglect by enforcing established animal welfare laws and, when necessary, take action to ensure that those who abuse animals are brought to justice.
Protect All Wildlife are involved in many projects to protect animals’ rights, welfare, and habitats. Money contributed to Protect All Wildlife supports ALL of our worthy programmes and gives us the flexibility to respond to emerging needs. Your donations make our work possible.
The Environment Secretary offered assurances about the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill in a letter to campaigners.
The Government has pledged to do “all we can” to ensure a ban on trophy hunting imports becomes law amid fears pro-hunting peers could “wreck” the reforms.
Environment Secretary Therese Coffey said the Government will not support any further amendments to the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill.
The proposed legislation would prohibit bringing into the country body parts from species deemed of conservation concern.
The Bill, introduced by Conservative MP Henry Smith, has already cleared the House of Commons.
But a group of peers have raised concerns and tabled amendments that threaten to derail the proposals.
Time is running out to consider the Bill and it will fall if it does not receive royal assent before the current parliamentary session stops ahead of the King’s Speech on November 7.
Ms Coffey, in a letter to the Humane Society International/UK dated August 17, wrote: “It is a manifesto commitment to ban the import of hunting trophies from endangered animals and we are working hard to deliver.
“The Bill passed the Commons in March, with the Government’s support, and we will do all we can to support its progress through the House of Lords working with Baroness Fookes.
“I can confirm that we will not be supporting any further amendments to the Bill. I expect committee stage to progress next month.”
Conservative peer Lady Fookes is the Bill’s sponsor in the House of Lords.
Claire Bass, senior director of campaigns and public affairs at Humane Society International/UK, said: “There is a small and vocal group of pro-hunting peers doing their best to wreck this Bill, but we need the Government to remain focused on the almost 90% of the public who want this ban on the import of hunting trophies.
“The timing for this Bill is indeed extremely tight but we were encouraged to receive a letter from Environment Secretary Therese Coffey yesterday.”
No Friday sittings to consider private members’ bills are expected in the House of Lords in September, according to the Government whips’ office in the Lords.
With the party conference recess running until October 16, there are expected to be just two possible Friday sittings before the parliamentary session ends.
Mr Smith, MP for Crawley, said he is speaking with the Government in a bid to secure more parliamentary time for his Bill.
Conservative peer Lord Mancroft, who opposes the proposals, said amendments have been tabled in a bid to “clean up” or clarify parts of the “badly drafted” Bill.
He acknowledged it is “very possible” the amendments could halt the Bill’s progress and rated its chances as “less than 10%”.
Mr Smith said the planned legislation is about UK import policy, adding opponents have pressed “spurious arguments” about how trophy hunting helps conservation.
A House of Lords briefing paper on the Bill stated: “According to figures from the Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna) trade database, 190 hunting trophies from Cites-listed species were imported into the UK in 2020 (the most recent complete year for which figures are available).”
Through Philanthropy and Activism, Bob Barker Fought Animal Cruelty.
All about Bob Barker’s animal activism — from refusing fur prizes to launching a non-profit charity that funds Spay & Neuter clinics.
Bob Barker, an affable fixture on US television for half a century who hosted the popular game show The Price Is Right for 35 years and was a committed animal rights activist, has died at age 99, NBC News and Fox reported on Saturday.
Barker died on Saturday morning of natural causes at his Hollywood Hills, California, home, his publicist Roger Neal said.
Bob Barker with Nancy Burnet, president of United Activist for Animal Rights, in front of a Fifth Avenue furrier in New York in 1988. Credit…Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times
Barker was known for pro-animal causes and campaigned for them into his 90s. He would end episodes of The Price Is Right by urging viewers to get their pets spayed and neutered to control the animal population and began a foundation to subsidise the practices. He also spoke out against the treatment of animals in zoos, rodeos and circuses.
Over decades as the host of The Price Is Right, the longest-running game show in American television history, Mr. Barker, beginning in the 1980, used his pulpit to remind millions of viewers to “help control the pet population; have your pet spayed or neutered.”
He put $25 million into founding the DJ & T Foundation which finances clinics that specialize in spaying and neutering. The foundation was named after Mr. Barker’s wife, Dorothy Jo, and his mother, Matilda Valandra, who was known as Tilly.
In 2004, he donated $1 million to Columbia University School of Law to further the study of animal rights law.
“The Law School is extremely grateful for this generous gift,” said Dean David M. Schizer. “And we look forward to giving our students exposure to this growing area of legal scholarship.”
In 2010 he donated US$5 million for a 1,200-ton ship named the Bob Barker that was operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to stop Japanese whaling ships from killing whales off Antarctica.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Anti-Whaling Ship ‘Bob Barker’
In 2012 Bob funded the travel costs for three Elephants to travel from the Toronto Zoo to a sanctuary in California aboard a private plane.
A spokesman for the TV icon says Barker offered to fund the $880,000 flight after learning that one of the Elephants wasn’t well enough to withstand the long trip by truck.
Henri Bollinger said that the Toronto Zoo agreed to move Thika, Iringa and Toka to the Performing Animals Welfare Society Elephant sanctuary in San Andreas, Calif., but that one of the animals suffers from “a serious foot problem.”
Barker described the Elephants’ new home as a “paradise” and said “to think that one of them might not survive the trip in a truck touched my heart and purse strings.”
Bob Barker with one of the Elephants that he helped travel to PAWS sanctuary
“It is money well-spent. I don’t know where you get more for your dollar, so far as protecting animals is concerned, than you get from PETA,” Barker said.
Bob Barker and Ingrid Newkirk at the opening of the PETA Bob Barker building in Los Angeles
In 2015, he stood behind a podium in an eleventh-floor conference room at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. His mission: to publicly shame Foster Farms — among the biggest poultry producers on the West Coast — for cruelty toward animals.
Reporters at the event were shown a secretly taped video, narrated by Barker and shot in May and June at two Foster Farms slaughtering plants in Fresno, Calif. The video showed scenes of thousands of chickens being carelessly hung by their legs on conveyor belts. Factory workers execute the process with brutal efficiency, occasionally punching live birds and plucking out their feathers.
Bob Barker speaking for Mercy For Animals in Los Angeles in 2015. Barker criticised poultry producer Foster Farms after an animal-rights group released video showing chickens being shackled, punched and having their feathers pulled out while still alive. Photo: AP
Julie Woodyer, campaigns director at Zoocheck, knew Barker for years as they collaborated on both successful and failed efforts to free animals from captivity at Canada’s zoos.
She says Barker brought a determination and generosity that was unmatched by other celebrities, often opening his chequebook to support the cause and willingly making public appearances to raise awareness.
“I just can’t imagine there will be somebody to replace that ever,” Woodyer said in a phone interview.
Woodyer first connected with the TV host and his partner Nancy Burnet over email in 2010 as Zoocheck — in co-operation with other animal rights organizations –attempted to free Lucy the elephant from the Edmonton Valley Zoo.
In 2011, Barker appeared on CTV’s “Canada AM” morning show where he explained that elephants were not adapted to brave Canada’s harsh winter climate and Lucy’s health was deteriorating.
While the campaign to relocate Lucy was unsuccessful, Woodyer said a bond was formed with Barker over their shared interest in animal rights.
Together, they were involved in a controversial and years-long effort to move three elephants — Toka, Thika and Iringa — from the Toronto Zoo to a sanctuary in California. The campaign included Barker making public appearances and mingling with local city councillors to explain his view in hopes they would lend their support.
Ultimately, Barker donated $800,000 to the Peoples Animal Welfare Society for the successful transport and care of the animals.
“It would have been years and years for us to try to fundraise that,” Woodyer said, “And it would’ve been too late for some of those elephants.”
Barker later donated $50,000 to help build Manitoba’s first black bear cub rehabilitation centre.
“Lending his celebrity voice … really boosted those campaigns significantly and allowed us to have a broader audience,” Woodyer said.
“He was the funniest man I’ve ever met, extremely sharp, even in his very late years, and he could always come up with something funny, and make us all laugh even in the midst of difficult times in our campaigns.”
Bob Barker was a passionate animal rights advocate throughout his life. PHOTO: PAUL ARCHULETA/FILMMAGIC
I’d like to see animals removed from the entertainment business. Chimpanzees and apes won’t perform unless you beat them. Circuses keep elephants in chains 90 percent of the time. Elephants need freedom of movement. In circuses, they live in cramped quarters, which is not the life intended for them by nature. Some are beaten daily, forced to do ridiculous tricks and robbed of every shred of dignity. ~ Bob Barker.
When I got wind of your courageous exploits, I felt I had to congratulate you. For a start, you are British. We adore the British – they are our second favourite colonialists. The first, obviously, are the Dutch. They gave us the Afrikaners who in turn gave us apartheid. What’s not to love about apartheid, right? Was that the reason your parents moved to South Africa in 1980?
Your efforts to encourage tourism to South Africa in these fraught times are laudable, indeed. It’s not easy these days to find a Brit who is interested in anything other than Brexit and that tawdry harlot, Meghan Markle.
Even though you’re only 46 and hail from Epsom, Surrey, you have your very own company operating out of Johannesburg. It’s called Take Aim Safaris. At first I thought it might be another of those bunny-fondling outfits that think the best way to shoot animals is with a camera. Ha! Poor fools. Unlike you, sir, they have clearly never cradled a 300 Winchester Magnum in one arm and a high-class prostitute in the other.
And you named your eldest son Hunter! You wouldn’t expect a man who enjoys shooting animals in the face to have a sense of humour. Well done.
You spotted a gap in the market. As the plague is still very much with us, people are understandably reluctant to travel. That’s until you reminded them that with fewer hunters around, wild animals have been breeding like, well, wild animals. You can barely walk anywhere in South Africa right now without bumping into an elephant.
So you fired off a newsletter to 3,000 of your clients around the world encouraging them to come here and kill a bunch of stuff for sport. And what a sport it is! Okay, maybe not so much for the animals, but they don’t pay taxes and won’t be missed.
You wrote, “Big elephant and trophy buffalo + hippo, croc are plentiful. The areas are well rested, the animal movement is fantastic.” Let’s see how fantastically they move with a 5.56-caliber bullet lodged in their brain haha.
“I have quota available on the big cats: leopard and lion plus elephant bulls at unbeatable prices.” This is great news. I have never trusted an animal that can’t change its spots. Leopards are duplicitous, violent brutes and I am delighted to hear that they are now on special. Lions, too, will pretend to befriend you, then have your throat out just for the sport of it. They are cats, after all. Did you know this? Or do you simply judge everything with four legs according to the price tag on its hairy ass? Fair enough.
Some of your prices do seem a bit steep. $8 for a guinea fowl? Leave a trail of breadcrumbs into your oven and they’ll cook themselves. $150 for a mongoose? Can’t be much left, especially if you’re using hollow-point ammo. And $75 for a vervet monkey? Daylight robbery, that is. Porcupines are priced right at $300. Even though it’s more of an execution than a hunt, you could still get a quill in the eye if you were very drunk and had to fall on him.
In a recent interview with African Hunting Gazette, you said you shot your first leopard at 16. Impressive! I hadn’t even had my first blowjob by that age and there you were on a wild killing spree. Have you had your first blowjob yet? No matter. It’s the killing that’s important.
I love that you hunted for a Christian drug rehab in the Northern Cape when you were younger. You gave them more meat than they knew what to do with. That’s a David Lynch movie, that is. Produced by Oliver Stone. Featuring a young Sylvester Stallone as you.
You’ve hunted all over – Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe … you even shot a bear in Russia. I suppose he didn’t understand when you shouted, “Hands up! Don’t move or I’ll shoot!” You also said Namibia is a great place to hunt.
“Namibia reminds me of South Africa 30 years ago with its low human population and massive open spaces.” Yep, there was hardly anyone living in South Africa in 1991. An easy mistake to make, what with 40 million people being tucked away out of sight. As for the massive open spaces, well, you had the Group Areas Act to thank for that.
The magazine asked what’s your favourite animals to hunt and you said, “Dagga Boys!” What? That was the name of my gang when I was growing up. But you were talking about something else. “Such an exciting hunt … it’s kill or be killed when you’re hunting buffalo.” So you engage in hand-to-hoof combat with these brutes? Respect, bro.
Our president is also into buffalo in a big way. Mainly for breeding purposes, though. No, I don’t mean … never mind.
Your greatest trophy was the buffalo you hunted with your dad in Mozambique. “It was, and remains, the fulfillment of a father and son dream hunt in a perfect environment.”
My greatest trophy was for tennis in Standard 8. It was tiny but I was very proud. My father never taught me how to hunt. Instead, he taught me how to play pool. The thrill just wasn’t the same, although people did die in some of the pubs he took me to.
You talk fondly of the “38-inch bull in Mozambique that put me firmly on a path I’m still on”. That’s, like, just over a metre? What kind of small-ass bull is that? You might as well have kicked him to death. Anyway, what do I know. I’m sure you believe your wife when she tells you that size isn’t everything.
So the hippo-humpers are saying that many of the animals on your list are endangered. This is nonsense. There are around 400 000 African elephants left in the wild. If you shot a hundred a day, they would last for ten years. That’s not exactly endangered in my book.
There are also 20 000 lions roaming about off their leashes. That’s more than enough lions for everyone. You can get through five a day at least, maybe more if they stop hiding up trees and in cardboard boxes. Sure, their numbers have plummeted by over 40% in the last three generations as a result of hunting, but our national IQ has dropped 40 points in three years as a result of bad education and too much CNN and you don’t see us shooting our stupid people, do you? Damn, this stuff is strong.
Where was I? Oh, yes. You charge £10,000 to shoot an elephant? That, my friend, is a small fortune in my pathetic currency. And £14,500 to put a bullet into the back of a lion’s head? That’s way too much. Are you on drugs? Tell you what. I’ll give you R10 000 for two baby elephants, three monkeys and a crocodile. You do mix-and-match packages, right? And you do pay your taxes, right?
I see you have lived in Joburg for almost your entire life. It’s completely understandable, then, that you would want to kill everything in sight. And you’ve been organising assassinations ever since 2008? Nice work if you can get it.
I see those gerbil-suckers over at MailOnline have been questioning your ethics. How very dare they. You told them, “We eat what we hunt … we love and conserve animals.” I’ve often wondered what elephant tastes like. Tough, I imagine. Do you make carpaccio out of the leopards? That would be a winner among the Italians.
You also told the running dogs of the media that “I have broken no laws”. Good one, mate. You and me and Jacob Zuma know it’s impossible to break laws in this country. Well, you can break them alright, but there ain’t jackshit gonna happen to you.
That bastion of truth, The Mirror, asked how you felt about the dwindling number of wild animals in SA. You said they were lying, which they obviously were, and said, “In South Africa we have over 20,000,000 wild animals bred and conserved here. The birth rate per annum is around 3,000,000.” You might want to check your science, son. I think you’re talking about our people, here.
By the way, my friend Ted said you look like a bit of a cunt. You’ll be pleased to know that I had one of the servants horsewhip him soundly. Your name is Knight, for heaven’s sake. You’re a member of the realm. And I do mean member.
I liked the way you wrapped up your interview with that hunting magazine: “For my family and I, there is no life without God.” There’s a rich vein of irony in there somewhere.
Did you know that if your Boris Johnson had kept his word and implemented the ban on trophy imports pledged in his election manifesto and repeated in the Commons last year, you’d be back in Surrey organising weasel hunts by now?
Our president also has trouble keeping his promises. Politicians, eh? Long may they lie.
Ben Trovato is the author of thirteen books, although you wouldn’t think so if you had to see his living conditions. His notorious trilogy of letters illuminated the darkest recesses of the human psyche, while his self-help guide went a long way towards boosting divorce and suicide rates. He also wrote a book that almost turned golf into a blood sport and brought out a survival manual that caused more harm than good. With a background in print and television journalism, Trovato’s popular newspaper columns have earned him a wicked reputation and a fatty liver.He can often be found surfing instead of meeting his deadlines. Trovato lives alone with two regrets and a hangover.
Taking an Elephant ride up the hill has become an indispensable part of a visit to the Amer Fort in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
It has become so popular that tourists are made to feel like they have missed out on something if they don’t take the ride.
While there is no doubt that the Elephant rides uphill through the majestic fort gives the tourists an experience of a lifetime, there is a dark side to it.
The ‘Elephant In The Room’ here is the Elephants themselves, or the way they are treated, to be exact.
The nearly half-an-hour long joyride up and down the hill costs Rs 1,100 for two passengers however has a hidden cost – the health and wellbeing of the Elephants.
Waiting for the tourists!
Amer Fort is a tourist attraction in India where sick, blind, and suffering Elephants are forced to give tourists rides hour after hour. Day after day. For years and years.
The Elephants at the fort which are used to ferry the tourists have to make multiple trips up and down throughout the day, even in the scorching heat.
As the tourist numbers grow and the popularity of the joyrides increases the Elephants have to overwork, often without proper time for food and rest. There have been at least a couple of incidents in the past few years exhausted Elephants collapsed and died.
Trainers beat Elephants with weapons and traumatise these gentle giants with a life of exhausting work, violence, neglected injuries, malnourishment, dehydration, and routine chaining. In fact, one foreign tourist recently filed an official cruelty complaint after witnessing trainers assault an Elephant for 10 minutes after the suffering animal tried to escape at the Amber Fort near Jaipur, Rajasthan. Even though the majority of Indians are Hindus – who deem Elephants sacred and worship the Elephant-headed god Ganesha – in the tourist industry, life for these animals consists of fear and agony. Those whose open wounds cause them pain or whose vision is impaired aren’t even allowed to rest. They’re forced to carry humans on their backs in the oppressive heat by men who threaten them with rods and bullhooks (sticks with a sharp metal hook at the end).
World Animal Protection, an international NGO has been running a campaign for years to end the use of Elephants for rides in the Amer Fort, alleging that the animals have been subjected to cruelty and ill-treatment for the sake of the tourists.
World Animal Protection held a screening of a documentary that showed how the animals are treated.
“Elephants are wild animals and they deserve to be in the wild. Amer Fort in Jaipur city is not a place for an Elephant. This is not their natural habitat. We must put an end of Elephant rides at Amer Fort,” said Gajender K Sharma, Country Director, World Animal Protection India.
An Amber Fort Elephant, with damaged feet from carrying tourists, kneels on a concrete floor.
According to Shubhubroto Ghosh, Wildlife Research Manager, World Animal Protection India, the campaign is aimed at ending the practice of using wildlife as a source of entertainment and have them retired and give them a life of dignity.
But where did the Elephants come from?
Given the fact that Rajasthan is a desert state, it is only natural to assume that Elephants are not native species, which is genetically adapted to live in the hot and dry conditions there.
According to wildlife campaigners, these Elephants were captured from the forests of Assam at a young age and sold at the traditional ‘Hathi bazar’ (elephant market) in Bihar’s Sonpur until 2004 when it was declared illegal. They also allege that despite the ban, elephants are still sold at the fair and are brought to states like Rajasthan.
Once the Elephants are brought to Jaipur, they are sheltered at the Hathi Gaon (Elephant village) where they are tamed and trained as ride animals.
“The village was meant to be a safe and comfortable place for the elephants to stay. But it is nothing than a car shed for Elephants. It is ill-equipped to house an animal like an Elephant. During the training, Elephants are starved, kept on chains. They go through a process called ‘the crush’, they are beaten badly to make them obedient,” Ghosh explained.
Another striking thing that one can notice at the Amer Fort is the sheer number of female Elephants. This, Ghosh said is no accident, but is a part of the design as it is easier to train and control female Elephants.
According to Ghosh, they are demanding a total ban on using the Elephants for rides as the authorities have failed to implement the existing rules.
Rangoli’s story
Rangoli was born at UNESCO World Heritage Site, Amer Fort, into a life of pain, captivity, and cruelty. For her entire 51-year life, Rangoli has suffered for the entertainment of tourists.
Currently, Rangoli is forced to carry tourists on her back, which is painful and creates sores. Rangoli endures this pain while walking over hot concrete and difficult cobblestones that damage their feet every day. Only to then spend her nights standing in her own feces, while chained when she ‘rests’.
With your support you can help end Elephant rides at Amer Fort and can begin the process of safely retiring Rangoli and all the other Elephants that are suffering.
A “once-in-a-lifetime” experience for you is a lifetime of suffering for them. Now is our moment to end this cruelty.
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It is vital that we protect animals against acts of cruelty, abuse, and neglect by enforcing established animal welfare laws and, when necessary, take action to ensure that those who abuse animals are brought to justice.
Protect All Wildlife are involved in many projects to protect animals’ rights, welfare, and habitats. Money contributed to Protect All Wildlife supports ALL of our worthy programmes and gives us the flexibility to respond to emerging needs. Your donations make our work possible.
The ailing Elephant died on Saturday, vets said, calling on the ill-equipped menagerie to evacuate her “mourning” partner to avert a second tragedy.
Zoo staff stand near the dead body of Noor Jehan at an enclosure in Karachi Zoological Gardens on Saturday. AFP
Pakistan’s zoos are frequently accused of being blasé about animal welfare, and the plight of Noor Jehan was cited by animal rights activists campaigning to shut the wildlife exhibition in southern Karachi city.
This month the 17-year-old African Elephant underwent emergency treatment for a tumour, which had crippled her back legs, but while in recovery she became trapped in her enclosure’s pool.
Zoo workers hauled out the 3.5-tonne pachyderm but she was unable to stand and lay stricken for nine days, “a life-threatening situation for Elephants”, said animal charity Four Paws International.
Misting fans are placed beside the body of Noor Jehan at Karachi Zoo. AP
Experts were considering euthanasia but before a decision was taken “she succumbed to her critical condition,” said a statement from the charity, which organised last-ditch medical efforts to save her.
Karachi Zoo director Kanwar Ayub confirmed Noor Jehan’s death on Saturday and an AFP reporter saw her caretaker openly weeping outside her enclosure. “It’s very sad,” said Four Paws International’s Austria-based chief vet Amir Khalil. “Noor Jehan deserved a chance.”
But the deceased Elephant’s pen pal Madhubala “should not have the same future”, he told AFP, saying he plans to arrive in Pakistan on Sunday to assess her health and organise her evacuation.
“Karachi Zoo does not fulfil international standards and is not equipped to take appropriate care of Elephants,” the Four Paws International statement said, expressing support for a forced closure.
Caretaker Yusuf Masseih (R) mourns following the death of Noor Jehan at Karachi Zoological Gardens. AFP
“It is now more urgent than ever that the remaining Elephant, who is mourning her long-time companion, is transferred to a more species-appropriate location as soon as possible, to prevent another potential tragedy.”
In April 2020, a court ordered the only zoo in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad to shut after poor facilities and mistreatment of the animals there were revealed.
The facility had drawn international condemnation for its treatment of an Asian Elephant named Kaavan, who was later airlifted to retirement in Cambodia in a project spearheaded by US popstar and actor Cher, and carried out by Four Paws.
Agence France-Presse
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WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP WILDLIFE
You can support Protect All Wildlife by donating as little as £1 – It only takes a minute but it can last a lifetime for an animal in need. Please donate below.
The Mission of Protect All Wildlife is to prevent cruelty and promote the welfare of ALL animals.
We believe EVERY animal should be treated with respect, empathy, and understanding. We raise awareness to protect and conserve wild, captive, companion and farm animals.
It is vital that we protect animals against acts of cruelty, abuse, and neglect by enforcing established animal welfare laws and, when necessary, take action to ensure that those who abuse animals are brought to justice.
Protect All Wildlife are involved in many projects to protect animals’ rights, welfare, and habitats. Money contributed to Protect All Wildlife supports ALL of our worthy programmes and gives us the flexibility to respond to emerging needs. Your donations make our work possible.
A 41-year-old African Elephant who had lived alone at a Puerto Rican zoo could get a new lease on life in Georgia.
Mundi, the only Elephant at Puerto Rico Zoo
For years, Mundi and the other animals at the Puerto Rico Zoo have been suffering in silence. In 2018, the USDA cancelled the zoo’s exhibitor’s license after citing dozens of violations including lack of veterinary care, expired food and medications, and a failure to protect animals from extreme heat and physical hazards, among other issues.
Nonprofit Elephant Aid International says they were recently asked to rescue Mundi the Elephant, who has been living in the defunct Dr. Juan A. Rivero Zoo in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. According to NBC News, the zoo had been closed to the public since hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 and was forced to shut down in February after accusations of negligence and the death of animals.
MUNDI
“For nearly 35 years, she has lived alone in a small yard with access to an enclosed shelter where she is chained at night,” the nonprofit said in a statement.
Now the organization, which is located in Attapulgus, Georgia, wants to help Mundi live her best and most fulfilling life for the rest of her days.
Elephant Aid International is raising money to help transport Mundi to their sanctuary, where she can remain outdoors and live as naturally as possible.
“Mundi will fly on a dedicated 747 flight. If everything goes as planned, she will arrive at the Refuge the first week of May,” the organization said. “Mundi’s future will be spent living free at ERNA, experiencing independence for the first time ever. She will immerse herself in nature and develop deep friendships that will help her discover her authentic elephant self.”
The nonprofit’s Georgia refuge spans 850 acres of hills, forests, lakes, and creeks. It is not open to the public, though Elephant lovers can watch on the organization’s “EleCam” on Youtube.
Currently, two Elephants live in the refuge. Bo and Tarra are both Asian Elephants who were rescued after years of performing in circuses.
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WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP WILDLIFE:
You can support ‘Protect All Wildlife’ by donating as little as £1 – It only takes a minute but it can last a lifetime for an animal in need. Please donate below.
Everyone who donates will receive a Certificate of Appreciation as a thank you for helping animals in need.
The Mission of Protect All Wildlife is to prevent cruelty and promote the welfare of ALL animals.
We believe EVERY animal should be treated with respect, empathy, and understanding. We raise awareness to protect and conserve wild, captive, companion and farm animals.
It is vital that we protect animals against acts of cruelty, abuse, and neglect by enforcing established animal welfare laws and, when necessary, take action to ensure that those who abuse animals are brought to justice.
Protect All Wildlife are involved in many projects to protect animals’ rights, welfare, and habitats. Money contributed to Protect All Wildlife supports ALL of our worthy programmes and gives us the flexibility to respond to emerging needs. Your donations make our work possible.
JOHANNESBURG – The South African government moved to withdraw regulations on threatened species that would have protected vulnerable wildlife from being hunted.
Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barabara Creecy announced the decision to drop the amended protected species regulations in a government gazette notice – one day before it was supposed to be implemented
The legislation that was intended to be enforced in April was set to widen the number of species that should be protected by stricter wildlife laws.
However, the Wildlife Ranching South Africa and Professional Hunters Association of South Africa challenged the Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Department on the amended list.
After considering various issues raised by the associations, the department decided to withdraw the implementation of the newly-revised legislature.
Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barabara Creecy announced the decision to drop the amended protected species regulations in a government gazette notice – one day before it was supposed to be implemented.
After the two organisations legally challenged the motion to protect a bigger range of wildlife, Creecy reached an out-of-court settlement with the parties.
Her reasons for withdrawing the regulations protecting terrestrial and freshwater species were not clearly explained, nor did she mention the associations’ issues with the regulations.
In addition, Creecy also retracted revised legislation that would have clamped clamped down on the Trophy Hunting of Leopards and Elephant management
The revised legislation would have clamped down on the trophy hunting of Elephants
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WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP WILDLIFE:
You can support ‘Protect All Wildlife’ by donating as little as £1 – It only takes a minute but it can last a lifetime for an animal in need. Please donate below.
Everyone who donates will receive a Certificate of Appreciation as a thank you for helping animals in need.
The Mission of Protect All Wildlife is to prevent cruelty and promote the welfare of ALL animals.
We believe EVERY animal should be treated with respect, empathy, and understanding. We raise awareness to protect and conserve wild, captive, companion and farm animals.
It is vital that we protect animals against acts of cruelty, abuse, and neglect by enforcing established animal welfare laws and, when necessary, take action to ensure that those who abuse animals are brought to justice.
Protect All Wildlife are involved in many projects to protect animals’ rights, welfare, and habitats. Money contributed to Protect All Wildlife supports ALL of our worthy programmes and gives us the flexibility to respond to emerging needs. Your donations make our work possible.
Like many young bull Elephants, Brigadier had a strategy. Spending his days in a small patch of forest in northwest Sri Lanka, he would emerge under cover of darkness to feast on crops. One evening, he bundled into an army brigadier’s property, earning him his name and sealing his fate.
Government officials captured Brigadier and trucked him to Maduru Oya National Park. But he immediately took off, probably intending to find his way home, got lost, and wound up 120 kilometres north at Sampur beach. Incredibly, a navy boat discovered him swimming 5 kilometres offshore and towed him to safety.
After his big adventure, Brigadier settled down again, returning to his nocturnal crop-raiding routine. Six months later, he was found dead at the bottom of a well.
Apart from the swimming bit, stories like this are common in Sri Lanka, where habitat loss is forcing Elephants into an increasingly bloody conflict with humans. When I visited the country to report on efforts to stem the bloodshed, I found that the government’s favoured solution of moving problem Elephants into fenced-off national parks isn’t working. Some experts believe it will even backfire, pushing the species to the brink in the country.
The only way to secure the future of Sri Lanka’s Elephants, they argue, is to find ways to peacefully coexist with them. That is no mean feat. And yet, as I saw for myself in several villages, there is a simple solution. The question is, will it be implemented across the island? And will people accept that the Elephants must live among us or not at all?
Asian Elephants are under pressure. Their numbers have declined by an estimated 50 percent in the last 75 years, leaving just 40,000 to 50,000 in the wild. Although they aren’t poached anywhere near as much as their African cousins, their forest homes are being rapidly fragmented. Nowhere is the problem more acute than in Sri Lanka. It accounts for just 2 percent of their total habitat yet is home to over 5000 Asian Elephants – more than 10 percent of the remaining global population.
That so many Elephants remain here is a testament to the species’ cultural importance in the country. The majority of Sri Lankans are Buddhist and Elephants feature prominently in a number of stories about the Buddha’s previous reincarnations. Hinduism, Sri Lanka’s second-largest religion, also enjoys a close association with the animals in the form of the god Ganesh. “Elephants hold a very special place in our hearts,” says Prithiviraj Fernando, chairman of the Centre for Conservation and Research in Tissamaharama.
Yet as the island grows increasingly crowded and their habitat disappears, the lives of Elephants and humans are overlapping more and more. This puts Sri Lanka’s many farmers at constant odds with the animals, often with deadly consequences.
Hungry Elephants raid crops, trampling fields and sometimes people. In response, farmers attack the animals with flaming torches, firecrackers, home-made guns and even explosives embedded in fruit, known as hakka patas or “jaw exploders”. Last year, more than 300 Elephants were killed in altercations with humans and around 70 people lost their lives to Elephants. “Sri Lanka has the highest level of Human-Elephant conflict in the world,” says Fernando. “Wherever there are people and Elephants, there’s conflict.”
For more than 70 years, Sri Lanka has attempted to solve the problem by moving Elephants to national parks. According to the government’s approach, the world’s second-largest land animal belongs in protected areas surrounded by electric fencing, while people belong everywhere else. In many cases, as with Brigadier, problem animals are specifically targeted for translocation. Officials also attempt to clear whole herds using a colonial-era tactic called an Elephant drive. Day after day, sometimes for a year or more, hundreds of people venture into Elephant territory, setting off guns and thousands of “Elephant thunders” (a type of huge firecracker) to corral the animals into fenced areas.
Whichever method officials use to try to confine Elephants to parks, it doesn’t work. In 2012, Fernando and his colleagues published a study showing that of 16 translocated bull Elephants that the researchers had monitored over several years, two were killed within the park they were released in and none of the others stayed put. Some broke out and returned home while others established a new territory where they began raiding crops again.
Elephant drives produce similar results. Many males evade the round-up or break out soon after arriving at a park. The only ones that stick around are the females and calves, which tend to be more risk averse. They soon experience first-hand that Sri Lanka’s parks often lack the resources necessary to support hundreds of additional residents, each of which eats up to 140 kilograms of vegetation per day. The newcomers quickly become “emaciated, walking skeletons, and many starve to death”, says Fernando. “We’ve seen this over and over again wherever Elephants have been driven to parks and fenced in.”
I saw it for myself at Udawalawe National Park. Tourists raised their cameras as a mother and calf stepped out of the thick brush, but the Elephants were a disturbing sight, with jutting ribs, protruding shoulder blades and rope-like backbones. They plucked placidly at the short grass beneath their feet, but it clearly isn’t enough to sustain them. Like many Elephants confined to overcrowded national parks, they were on the verge of starvation.
That females and calves tend to suffer this fate is especially concerning, says Shermin de Silva, director of the Udawalawe Elephant Research Project and founder of Trunks & Leaves, a non-profit organisation focusing on Elephant research and outreach. Elephants have extremely slow reproduction rates, usually producing just one calf every six years. Earlier this year, based on mathematical modelling of Elephant population demographics from Udawalawe, de Silva reported that for Asian Elephants to maintain their numbers, females must reproduce at near-optimal rates and most calves must survive. Nutritional stress, in other words, can quickly push Elephant populations in Sri Lanka and beyond into tailspins. “For Elephants, the biggest threat is the calf that’s never born,” says de Silva.
The stark implications of this finding were reinforced earlier this year, when Fernando and his colleagues published the first nationwide Elephant survey. It showed that Elephants occur across 60 percent of the country – virtually everywhere that isn’t highly urbanised – and that 70 percent of them live side-by-side with humans. This not only means that Sri Lanka’s attempt to confine Elephants to parks has “completely failed”, says Fernando, but also that non-protected areas will have to play a critical role in the species’ survival. If Sri Lanka wants to save its Elephants, it has to find a way for people to live peacefully alongside them.
I saw just how difficult this is when I came across a bloated bull Elephant lying in a ditch by the side of a dirt road in north-west Sri Lanka, flies buzzing around two bullet wounds. A local man guessed it had been shot by a farmer in a nearby field and ran away before collapsing here. The animal was still alive when it was discovered, and a small crowd had gathered and erected a makeshift tent to give it some shade. Someone brought coconuts and bananas to try to feed it. Someone else brought water. Another person called the vet. When the Elephant died, a monk performed a ceremony to help ease it into the next life.
I left the scene feeling nauseous. But just a few minutes’ drive away, past neon green rice paddies and homes shaded by coconut and banana trees, I visited a place that is showing by example that there is an alternative.
In 2013, the village of Galewewa pioneered a programme designed by Fernando and his colleagues to use electric fences to encircle crops and homes rather than Elephants. The locals took some convincing. “People just assumed it wouldn’t be successful because they’d seen the government fences,” says Sampath Ekanayaka, manager of the Centre for Conservation and Research’s community programmes in the region. “To them, this was just another fence.”
In many ways, it is. But there are reasons to think the scheme would work. Elephants that encounter fences in national parks have “all the time in the world” to figure out how to get past the obstacles, says Fernando. Those that encounter a fence surrounding a village or crop field are unlikely to invest the time and energy required to break in because there will usually be people around, and Elephants are afraid of them.
Do Fence Me In
Eventually, after several years of deliberation, the village elders agreed to try the method. Fernando’s organisation paid for 90 percent of the installation costs, but villagers paid the rest, as well as shouldering the burden of maintaining the fences throughout the growing season. After harvesting, they take down the fences, allowing Elephants to forage on the crop remains.
The results have been encouraging. After six years with the fences, no people or Elephants have been killed, nocturnal raids are practically non-existent and crop yields and earnings have significantly increased. Galewewa’s success has prompted around 25 more villages to join the programme, and Sri Lanka’s wildlife department has now established another 30 village fences.
“I would 100 percent recommend this system to others in Sri Lanka,” says J.M.Muthubanda, president of the Fence Maintenance Society in Manakkuliya Gama, a village near Galewewa. “If we didn’t have this fence, many people would have been killed and we would have had to abandon the land. This was the best decision we ever made.”
Fencing can only ever be one part of the solution. Just as important is persuading people to change the way they think about living alongside Elephants – and to adapt their behaviour. People need to take responsibility for protecting themselves and the Elephants they share the land with, says Fernando.
Take drinking, for example. Around 70 percent of men who are killed by Elephants are intoxicated when the incident happens. Simply staying inside after a night of drinking would greatly reduce those deaths, says Sumith Pilapitiya, an independent Elephant researcher and former director general of wildlife conservation in Sri Lanka. “If you’re out drunk on a bike at night and you ride into an Elephant, what do you expect the Elephant to do at that point?” says Pilapitiya. “As human beings, we should be taking much more responsibility for our lives.”
Trains are another problem. Around 15 Elephants are killed each year on the tracks. Sri Lanka has few underpasses or overpasses but there is a straightforward fix. Train drivers could simply slowdown in the areas where Elephants tend to get hit.
What I saw in Galewewa shows that people can peacefully coexist with Elephants, so long as they have the right attitude and some semblance of support. Notionally at least, the Sri Lankan government is on board. As early as 2007, it created a national Elephant conservation plan that largely reflected the findings of Fernando, Pilapitiya and other Elephant researchers, including provisions for implementing seasonal agricultural fencing and educational programmes. But the plan was implemented ad hoc and has failed to live up to its potential as a result, says Pilapitiya, who resigned from his job heading Sri Lanka’s wildlife department in 2015 because of “systemic political interference”. G.C.Sooriyabandara, the current director-general of the Department of Wildlife Conservation, didn’t respond to repeated interview requests.
Still, there are signs of progress. In a first for Sri Lanka, the country’s Southern Development Board, following advice from Pilapitiya and Fernando, agreed to use radio tracking collars to study the movements of several herds of Elephants so it could select a site for a major industrial project that would minimise impact on the animals. “It’s the right thing to do, as far as I’m concerned,” says a high-level official at the board, who asked not to be named because he didn’t have permission to speak to the media.
As more and more villages sign up for his fencing programme, Fernando and his colleagues believe the country as a whole will eventually follow. “This is not something that can be done in a day or a year or even 10 years,” says Fernando. “It might take 25 years. But we’re hopeful that common sense will prevail.”
It is already too late for Brigadier. But if Fernando is right, Asian Elephants can look forward to a brighter future, and not only in Sri Lanka. The country’s human population density isn’t far behind that of India and Bangladesh, but it has almost 10 times the number of Elephants. This makes it a test case for Human-Elephant coexistence, says de Silva. “If we can get it to work in Sri Lanka, we can get it to work anywhere.”
From an original article by Rachel Nuwer for New Scientist
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