Riding elephants is a cruel thing
On the need to be more mindful about how we treat all living creatures—not just people
On the need to be more mindful about how we treat all living creatures—not just people
Mahatma Gandhi once said that “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” I believe the same can be said to judge a man’s character.
Over the past few months I have written about my experiences through travel—how, if you are fortunate enough to do it, traveling can broaden the mind and open it up to everything life throws at you. But in going abroad, you need to remember that you are a guest in a country and that you need to treat its residents—essentially your hosts— with the respect they deserve.
This includes every living creature in the country, from the taxi driver to the street vendor to the flora and fauna, because they too are part of the ecosystem that we as tourists are treading on.
A European friend of mine from the university decided to come to Asia for the first time after graduation. I showed her around parts of the Philippines, and we also went to Bangkok for a couple of days (Thailand seems to be the go-to place in Asia for Europeans). Like many western tourists, she was curious about elephants—how to wash them, how to feed them, and even how to wear baggy elephant pants, which she says would eventually form part of her sleeping clothes, for Instagram pictures. After a quick search on Google, we found many places where we could ride elephants, but that was not what we were looking to do.
We asked about any sanctuaries but found none close enough to the capital. Every time we asked and brought up elephants, we were referred to a place where we could ride them, which we politely declined.
Although my friend was sad not to see an elephant, having come from quite far away, she was not going to quickly sacrifice her moral stance for what would be for a quick experience for her but would have long term repercussions for the animal. As we all know, elephants never forget.
The elephant riding industry in places like Thailand survives purely because of tourist demand. These are people who ride these majestic creatures just to take a photograph for social media. While most do this to show their love for animals—in this case for the elephants—they don’t understand the abuse and cruel training most of these animals go through in order to allow them to be “domesticated” enough for visitors to ride them.
There are thousands of elephants in captivity, often under extremely cruel conditions, such as being chained and beaten, around the world for the purpose of this so-called “elephant tourism,” especially in Southeast Asia. While over a hundred travel companies have been committed to stop selling tickets for elephant riding and elephant shows, my recent trip exposed me to the fact that there is still a prevalent “elephant tourism” going on.
In a study conducted by the World Animal Protection, over 40 percent of the tourists in Thailand surveyed in 2016 said they were planning on riding an elephant. In that same year, Thailand saw over 30 million tourists. You can do the math.
It does not stop with elephants. These ethical issues are also raised when talking about swimming with captive dolphins, playing with captive lions, and other creatures not meant to be held in captivity. Furthermore, wherever there are long tourist treks, there are usually alternative modes of transportation available—whether elephants, donkeys, horses, mules, camels, or other native animals of the area.
There is a fine line between animals that could be “ethically” domesticated and those that we aren’t supposed to be domesticating. Elephants are among those that cannot be ethically domesticated. Even more so, what is never okay—and what I have seen too often in my travels—are sickly, weak animals being used to transport people who do not consider the stress their weight puts on the animal they are riding. Just because an animal cannot express his pain in words we understand does not mean that it does not feel any. Just one look at the creature can clearly show whether or not it is fit to be domesticated, like in the case of a sickly mule that has legs as thin as twigs or of a horse that is so skinny that some of its ribs are beginning to show.
“How a society treats its most vulnerable is always the measure of its humanity,” Matthew Rycroft, UK ambassador to UN, famously said. If you really must take a photo with an elephant in Thailand, look for a sanctuary and do your research so that you know how to treat these animals with the respect they deserve.
I must admit that, in my younger years, I was ignorant about these issues and I gladly succumbed to “animal tourism.” But it is never too late to turn around and start doing what we all know is the right thing.
How a society treats its most vulnerable is always the measure of its humanity. —Matthew Rycroft