As travelers' awareness about the cruel, inhumane conditions that the animals suffer to supply elephant-riding experiences and circus-style shows, unethical operators throughout Asia are now offering less obviously harmful interactions with these gentle giants, leading to new tourism trends like bathing and selfies.
Unfortunately, these are, in fact, equally exploitative activities, which rely upon terrible behind-the-scenes suffering and appallingly inhumane conditions in which these sensitive, sentient creatures are held captive.
World Animal Protection, in exposing these alarming trends taking hold across Asia, expects the abuse to get even worse as tourism venues try to compensate for their loss of income caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Tourists need to know the truth-any elephant that you can get close enough to touch, is an elephant that's been subjected to horrific abuse for this use," explained Audrey Mealia, Global Head of Wildlife at World Animal Protection.
"It's not just riding and circus-style shows that involve suffering-it's the bathing and selfie opportunities that you might find at so-called 'sanctuaries', 'orphanages' or 'rescue centers'. This isn't innocent fun. This is cruelty."
Even as babies, to "train" them to ignore their natural behaviors and break their spirits so they'll comply with a lifetime of serving and amusing visitors, elephants are subjected to a horrifying torture process called "Phajaan" or "the crush" in which, they are repeatedly beaten, stabbed, caged, starved and sleep-deprived into submission.
The number of elephant washing venues in Thailand has more than tripled in the last five years, many of which now masquerade as elephant "sanctuaries", "rescue centers" or "retirement homes" to fool well-meaning tourists. Prior to the pandemic, the captive elephant tourism industry was bringing in between $581 and $770 million (USD) per year on the back of animal suffering.
World Animal Protection has just released its third-edition report 'Elephants. Not Commodities.' With a Foreword by Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, comparing research into elephant tourism over the course of a decade through investigations into venues across Thailand, India, Laos, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
Its study's findings are sickening, revealing that 63 percent (2,390) of these captive elephants today are suffering in severely dire conditions at 208 venues across the areas studied, and only seven percent (279) are kept in high-welfare venues.
Three-quarters of the over 3,800 captive elephants in 357 elephant tourism venues across Asia are held in Thailand, where their numbers have increased by 70 percent in the past ten years alone.
World Animal Protection is advocating for a ban on captive breeding of elephants used for commercial tourism to put an end to the trauma for future generations. And, tourists have it in their personal power to turn their backs on unethical operations, opting instead for experiences where they can see elephants in the wild or observation-only encounters at truly elephant-friendly camps, which care for elephants that are ineligible for return to the wild.
World Animal Protection donors have been supplying essential funds to the dozen ethical, elephant-friendly camps that are still in operation across Asia after many were forced to close and lay off their staff, and the rest were left struggling to care for their elephants because the industry has halted amid the pandemic.
The organization is calling on everyone, from travelers to tourist operators, to do their homework and choose elephant activities responsibly, as less demand for unethical practices will mean less elephant suffering. Anyone can also go online to sign the petition to ban the global wildlife trade or donate to the elephant appeal in support of the cause.
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