So I’ve got another animal post for you today. I’m sure you
have all heard of this iconic animal and there is already a lot of conservation
going on to help them, but some parts are being overlooked as other issues are focused
on.
I want to talk about elephants today. African Elephants are
the largest land mammal found on earth today and are the most recognisable
species of elephants, followed by Asian elephants and then there are even
subspecies of these like the Sumatran or Sri Lankan elephants. The Bornean
pygmy elephant is also believed to be a separate subspecies as well but it is
yet to be confirmed.
Elephants are famous for their ivory and it is well known
that they are still illegally hunted for it which is then carved and used to
produce ‘luxury’ products (that of course is in some people eyes). Some people don’t know but basically a tusk
is just a forward facing canine with absolutely no special properties at all. There
was a large show in New York in June where 970kg of ‘blood ivory’ was destroyed
in front of crowds to symbolise the vast majority of peoples view towards this
product.
I however don’t want this post to focus on the illegal ivory
trade, I’m not even planning on talking about wild elephants that much either. It’s
the elephants which are used for work in places within Asia such as Thailand
which I want to bring to your attention.
Over the last couple
of years many of my friends have been on gap years and a lot of them go
traveling through Asia and of course you see pictures of their trips on
facebook and Instagram. The majority of them have some form of interaction with
elephants whether that is just a simple ride, washing them in rivers or watching
them work in the forest moving logs around. They all look like amazing
experiences however there are many problems beneath the surface which go
overlooked by many.
Some of these elephants are born into captivity and so are brought
up round humans this means that they are domesticated to a point. The problem comes
however from the fact that the demand for elephants outweighs the numbers born
into captivity, so there is an illegal trade of wild elephants being captured
young for these jobs across Asia. Up to a couple of hundred wild elephants are
illegally captured and sold into the tourist industry across Asia each year and
this might not sound like a huge number but the estimated population of Asian
elephants is only estimated at 4-5 thousand and they are classified as
endangered.
Taking them from the wild is bad enough as inhumane traps
are used to trap the leg of the animal or mothers are shot and the young are
taken. But the cruelty doesn’t end there, the elephant then has to be broken in
just like a horse but it’s nowhere near as nice. The actual term they use for
this process if elephant ‘crushing’ which I’m sure you can tell from the name
isn’t all that pleasant.
Elephant crushing involves beating the elephants with sticks
and bullhooks and stabbing their feet which are extremely sensitive, they are
also chained up in a way to cause sleep-deprivation and starved all to break
their spirits so as to be submissive when used for work.
I know there isn’t all that much an individual is really
able to do about this apart from boycotting elephants in areas where things
such as animal welfare isn’t a high priority. So I’ve just written this in a
hope to bring it to few more people’s attention as it has always been in the
shadow of the illegal ivory trade.
There is lots of literature online with more in-depth information
on the subject and number of petitions which you can sign to show you support.
Thanks for reading
Check out these links
This isn't the best of quality but is from an area in Borneo in which I took some the photos
seen in this post.
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