Thailand leads the pack for Asia’s abused tourist elephants
BANGKOK: Twice as many elephants work in Thailand’s tourism industry as the rest of Asia combined, with the vast majority kept in “severely inadequate conditions”, a new report revealed yesterday.
The world’s largest land mammal is a huge draw for tourists across two continents.
But while Africa’s elephants are more likely to be spotted roaming vast nature reserves, their Asian cousins are less fortunate.
A multi-million dollar industry has flourished in recent decades with tourists taking rides on the giant beasts or watching them perform in circus shows.
Researchers from World Animal Protection spent two years visiting 220 venues using elephants across Asia, in what they describe as the most comprehensive survey to date of a rapidly growing, lucrative, but poorly regulated industry.
Their data showed pachyderm welfare routinely came in second place to turning a fast profit, with three- quarters of Asia’s captive elephants kept in conditions that were rated poor or unacceptable.
Thailand stood out as the global epicentre.
Of the 2,923 elephants WAP documented working within Asia’s tourism trade, 2,198 were found in Thailand alone.
The next largest industry was India, with an estimated 617 elephants, followed by Sri Lanka on 166, Nepal on 147, Laos on 59 and Cambodia with just 36.
All the venues visited, which researchers said represented 90 per cent of the industry, were rated on a scale of 1-10 in terms of conditions with 77 per cent scoring between just one to five – what researchers classified as ‘poor or unacceptable’.
“When not giving rides or performing, the elephants were typically chained day and night, most of the time to chains less than three metres long.
They were also fed poor diets, given limited appropriate veterinary care and were frequently kept on concrete floors in stressful locations,” the report said. — AFP