Outcry over China’s ‘mistreated’ elephants
TWENTY-FOUR young elephants sold by Zimbabwe to a Chinese zoo at the beginning of this month are malnourished and peppered with injuries, according to secret pictures taken of them in their new enclosures by conservationists.
The elephants, who are all around five years old, were part of a 27-strong group captured last year in Hwange National Park.
They were sold for an estimated £25,000 each to China’s Chimelong Safari Park, a vast corporate leisure centre in the southern city of Guangzhou, by Zimbabwe’s wildlife authorities, who said they needed to raise money for conservation efforts at home. The animals were shipped to China via Dubai on July 5 amid outcry from conservation groups who said it was cruel to subject them to separation from their family groups and to cross-continental travel. They also questioned the record of 300-acre Chimelong Safari Park, which has been accused of keeping animals in poor conditions and treating them badly.
The photographs, originally published by National Geographic, show the animals penned in small concrete and metal enclosures, eating straw.
They are thin, and circular wounds can be seen on their skin. Chunmei Hu, a project manager with Nature University, a Beijing-based environmental group, said she took the photographs on Monday at the zoo’s quarantine facility. “I have seen at least 23 elephants,” she told the website. “Most of the elephants have been hurt.” Joyce Poole, the co-founder of ElephantVoices, a lobby group, said some of the injuries visible on their skin could have been inflicted by handlers.