OBSCENE OBSERVERS

THIS SHOT OF AN ELEPHANT BEING FORCED TO PERFORM UNDERWATER WAS PUBLISHED LAST YEAR IN THE AWARDWINNING BOOK HIDDEN: ANIMALS IN THE ATHROPOCENE…

Is this a well-known animal act, or something you just stumbled across? “It wasn’t well known and it was at a zoo (Khao Kiew Zoo, Chonburi, Thailand) that they promote as one that’s sensitive to conservation, which is just a façade. I walked in by chance. I heard elephants and I saw all these people going through a tunnel into an underground pavilion, then being faced with this wall of water. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was shocking, knowing what’s behind this, and seeing the guy in the pool with the elephant, standing on its head, forcing it for long periods underwater. It was distressed and didn’t want to be there, and their ignorance about what’s going on. An indictment of our disconnection with nature.” www.weanimalsmedia.org/our-work/hidden