Elephant and Conservation Experts From Around the World Condemn Elephant Rides
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org
FROM
Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)
July 2013
Statement by elephant professionals in opposition to elephant
rides
PAWS has invited professionals in science, conservation and elephant care
to join us in endorsing the following statement that addresses the use of
elephants for rides.
We, the undersigned, are opposed to the use of elephants for rides at
county fairs, carnivals, circuses, zoos and other recreational activities,
for the following reasons:
- It is wrong to allow our children to think that elephants used for
rides are living an acceptable life, when evidence for the opposite is
overwhelming.
- Reducing elephants to the equivalent of a carnival ride distorts the
public's understanding of elephants and of their endangered status in
the wild.
- Elephants are highly intelligent, curious and socially complex
animals who possess a range of emotions, and are empathetic and
self-aware. It is appalling to see these astonishing animals reduced to
walking in small circles for hours as they give rides.
- Elephants used for rides were traumatically taken from their
mothers as calves.
- Female elephants, those typically used for rides, would naturally
remain with their families for life.
- Elephants used for rides are deprived of what is natural to them,
including the ability to move freely in a vast natural environment, to
be part of a family and extended social network, and to have choice and
control over their lives.
- Elephants are wild animals. They are not domesticated, so they
retain their innate wild natures, which are often brutally suppressed.
- The extreme training that is necessary to dominate and control
elephants for providing customers with "safe" rides is abusive. It is
well documented that elephants are trained to comply with commands
through use of the menacing weapon called the bullhook and fear of
painful punishment.
- Elephants used for rides are under a great deal of stress from being
held in conditions to which they are unsuited, including prolonged
chaining, confinement in cramped trucks and pens, extensive travel, and
ongoing threat of punishment. There are many documented incidents in
which elephants have "snapped," and have injured or killed people. The
interests and well-being of elephants used for rides will always be
secondary to the profits the company needs to maintain itself.
- Elephant rides do not contribute to the conservation of elephants,
or to an awareness of the plight of wild elephants. On the contrary,
elephant rides may divert funds from genuine, and deeply important,
conservation work.
- Conservation is a noble cause and it is demeaned by unethical ride
companies that use it as a public relations ploy to distract the public
from this inhumane, unsafe and outdated use of elephants.
- It is wrong to keep alive an outdated practice that we know is
brutal for elephants.
Given current knowledge, it is unjustifiable to use elephants for
recreational rides, and it is wrong to allow elephants to suffer just so
they can entertain us.
The times are changing. More and more county fairs and other community
events are eschewing elephant rides due to public safety and humane
concerns.
We advise event organizers to reject elephant rides, and we strongly urge
the public to refrain from riding elephants, to oppose elephant rides if
they are proposed for a community event, and to support legitimate
conservation organizations that are making a real difference for elephants.
Sincerely,
Ed Stewart, President and Co-founder, PAWS
Cynthia Moss, Director, Amboseli Trust for Elephants, Kenya
Phil Ensley, DVM, DACZM, Former associate veterinarian with the San Diego
Zoo
David Hancocks, Former director of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in
Tucson, Arizona, Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo, Australia's Werribee Open
Range Zoo, and Melbourne Zoo.
W. Keith Lindsay, Ph.D., Conservation Biologist & Member, Scientific
Advisory Committee, Amboseli Elephant Research Project (Kenya)
Peter Stroud, Independent Zoological Consultant, Member of the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature/Species Survival
Commission Asian Elephant Specialist Group
Scott Blais, International Elephant Consultant
Carol Buckley, founder and CEO of Elephant Aid International and founding
director of The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee
John W. Freeze, Retired Animal Husbandry Supervisor, North Carolina
Zoological Park
Gary Kuehn, DVM, Former veterinarian with the Los Angeles Zoo
Henry Melvyn Richardson, DVM
Will Travers, OBE, CEO, The Born Free Foundation, UK and Born Free USA
Margaret Whittaker, Animal Behavior Consultant, Active Environments, Inc.
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