The Claim
Many memes and discussions revolve around the notion that elephant riding and interactions should be considered Animal Abuse. Due to the aggression of the African Elephant, this is mostly referring to the Asian Elephant.
The Facts
Many extreme Animal Activists such as PETA have been spreading propaganda against any interactions with animals. In the case of Elephants, they have been somewhat successful, luring unsuspecting and impressionable people into believing their outrageous claims. So let’s get to the FACTS…
Are Asian Elephants Domestic
There is a bit of confusion on the difference between Domestic and Domesticated. This is another Activist ploy to get you to think there’s no such thing as a domestic elephant. This is far from the truth.
Domesticated – selectively bred to live with or around humans
Domestic – Kept by someone, for example as a farm (working) animal or a pet
Domestic vs domesticated: what is the difference? (diffsense.com)
As you can probably figure out, Asian Elephants fall under the domestic category. While some academics recognize the Asian Elephant as Domesticated, almost all recognize the Asian Elephant as Domestic.
List of domesticated animals (en-academic.com)
The Crushing of Juvenile Asian Elephants
Crushing is a term of a way to train WILD juvenile elephants. Much like wild horses are “broken.” NOT for domestic-bred elephants.
Elephant crushing – Wikipedia
In most countries capturing, selling, transporting, and buying wild elephants is extremely illegal and harsh penalties are handed out.
Illegal Trade in Live Asian Elephants
The viral videos and/or photos that are associated with elephant crushing comes from a single source of a PETA video that was taken in 2002. Different views and stills make it look like this is a regular practice. But that is a huge lie.
DON’T BE FOOLED BY EMOTIVE ANTI-ELEPHANT TOURISM
Domestic bred and raised elephants are trained much like the training of a new puppy. No “crushing” occurs at all. Crushing is the rare exception, not the rule, and very illegal.
Asian Elephants Cannot Handle Carrying Weight
This is the most laughable claim by the Extreme Activists and people actually fall for it. Elephants have been carrying weight for several millenniums without any dying from the result. Horses, on the other hand, are regularly euthanized directly after it was ridden. Usually from a broken leg that actually can’t handle the weight of a rider. This is the hypocrisy of the activists.
Science shows that Asian Elephants can comfortably and easily carry 25% of it’s body weight with no issues. The total weight, including the mahout, yang (chair), and passengers is around 6%. Elephants are VERY easily able to carry this weight.
riding-weights-fact-sheet-nov-14-revised-feb-17-kgs.pdf (elephantstay.com)
Elephants are Forced to Carry Tourists All Day Long
Another lie spread by Activists. A simple observation at any Elephant Camp shows that the elephants are rotated after every ride. MOST of the day they are eating and playing in a pool, river, or lake. Most Activists have never even been to a camp to research facts on their own to know this. They rather just play dumb and blindly believe what is force fed to them.
The Truth Behind Elephant Sanctuaries
In the wake of the success of Extreme Elephant Activists, a new breed of scam has evolved. The Elephant “Sanctuary.” This falls into 2 categories and can be very easily identified. One is a not-for-profit NGO that is actually a sanctuary where you usually can’t get anywhere near the elephant. The other is a for-profit elephant tourism camp that CLAIMS to be a real sanctuary, but actually not. They are set up to make money. That’s it. For those of you who are still wanting to visit only true sanctuaries, just ask for their NGO status. Real sanctuaries will show you immediately. Fake sanctuaries will try to hide the fact that they just want to make money.
These fake sanctuaries will have heavy interactions with the elephants. Forcing the elephants to wade in the water while being “washed” and other forced interactions with tourists. All the while claiming how ethical they are.
These Fake Sanctuaries are truly unethical, plain and simple. If you go to the sanctuary, they’ll tell you stories that are mostly lies. From the condition of the elephants before they “rescued” them to outrageously false back stories. They will even show you clips of that single 2002 video previously mentioned making you believe that it’s the norm. Why is this unethical? To visit one of these fake sanctuaries to interact with elephants, you have to pay a premium. But after elephant interactions, usually during lunch, you will be force fed lies and misinformation about the “inhumane” treatment of elephants that would make the average adult shed a tear or outright cry. They do this just before asking for even more money to help their cause, which is actually to line their pockets with more money. Like most scams, they reach for human emotions to get money from you. This is what an unethical operation is like. Elephant Camps won’t do this kind of scam.
Are There Elephant Abuse?
The answer is YES, you will find there are abuse. But it’s rare. You will find there are a much higher instances of abusing dogs. Or abusing horses. Or any other domestic or domesticated animals. Even abuse of other people. There are still bad people out there that will do bad things. But the VAST majority of elephant/human partnerships are a caring and loving relationship that is life-long. An elephant can live 60 years or so. And most of this life is as a companion to a single human. The bond is enormous.
Is this a FACTnoid?
Each PETA claim is either false or greatly exaggerated at the very least.
