132,000 want zoo show ban Animals snatched as babies
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the glass visitors cheer their acrobatics, often performed twice a day.
The training process used to get the animals to perform is horrific, according to the Save The Asian Elephants charity.
Chief executive Duncan McNair said: “Virtually any elephant that allows a tourist to ride it or performs in any way has gone through this process.
“Visitors may think the elephants ‘look fine’ but they don’t understand what the animals have been through.”
The process begins when the animals are snatched as calves. The mother and others in the herd who try to intervene
The trainer with his elephant are often slaughtered, with an estimated seven or eight adults killed for every calf taken. The calf then goes through “pajan” – training designed to break its spirits and brutalise it into submission.
The charity says calves are locked into “crushing cages” barely big enough for them, deprived of food and water and kept awake for days with loud noise.
Next, they are beaten with hammers and clubs and stabbed with rods tipped with metal spikes or bullhooks.
Almost 50% of elephants die from the abuse. Of the rest, 10% die of heart failure within a year due to stress. Those DUNCAN MCNAIR SAVE THE ASIAN ELEPHANTS who make it beyond this are destined to suffer a lifetime of fear, according to Save The Asian Elephants.
Around 132,000 people have now signed a petition calling for the underwater shows to be stopped.
Pakarathon Tienchai, the Governor of Chonburi, Thailand, who started the petition, said: “No elephant would exhibit these types of behaviours in the wild, so in order to make them do so for the crowds, trainers use cruel techniques to make sure their charges will do what they say.”
Attaporn Sriheran, director of the zoo, near Pattaya, has denied the shows are cruel and said they were “exercise for the elephants” and taught visitors about animal behaviour.
But Dr Chris Draper, head of animal welfare and captivity for Born Free, said: “This is an exploitative spectacle.”
Visitors do not know what the animals go through