On World Animal Day, it’s time to end elephant polo

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On World Animal Day, it’s time to end elephant polo

By Jason Baker 
Special to The Nation

 

 

World Animal Day falls today, October 4, and while it’s hard to know which animal rights issue will go viral over the next few hours, PETA Asia’s efforts to persuade the Minor Hotel Group to stop organising the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Thailand have already garnered worldwide attention.

 

Our recent expose showing that elephants are abused during the event may have led some to believe that this is a new campaign, but we’ve been trying to discuss the issue with Minor Hotel Group’s management for more than two years.

 

It appears that rather than carefully considering the opinions and concerns of countless people around the world, the Minor Hotel Group prefers to cling to its entrenched position. What makes its intransigence even more puzzling is that the CEO and chair of Minor International, William Heinecke, likely cares about elephants, as he lived in Thailand for decades. Or perhaps the company is just following an ill-advised business model: caution over action.

 

There are animals everywhere who need help. PETA Asia and its international affiliates work to rescue and rehabilitate them every day, not just on World Animal Day – from cows to bears to chickens. And, of course, elephants.

 

Take Maggie, an African elephant who spent decades confined to a concrete stall in the Alaska Zoo. Because of the frigid weather, she got very little exercise, even though elephants are meant to be on the move almost constantly. She repeatedly collapsed, and cranes had to be brought in to raise her to her feet.

 

The zoo refused all appeals from PETA in the US to relocate her. Yet as her health deteriorated and she became more and more emotionally broken, zoo officials had a change of heart. In 2007, she was moved to a lovely sanctuary, and today, she’s flourishing.

 

Then there’s Gajraj, who was only 12 years old when he was stolen from his family. For more than half a century, his world extended only to the end of the chains that shackled him near popular Indian tourist areas. PETA India’s campaign for his release moved hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide to flood decision-makers with appeals to free him. He’s now thriving in a conservation centre, where he can roam free and enjoy the company of other elephants.

 

The cruelty inflicted on elephants forced to play polo at the King’s Cup – subjecting them to continual beatings, forcing them to endure the sweltering heat, and leaving them chained in floodwaters – is deeply entrenched. But the Minor Hotel Group can put an end to it – after all, it created and continues to support the event, which perpetuates the abuse and exploitation of elephants for entertainment.

 

I’ve been travelling to Thailand for 20 years, and during that time, I’ve been happy to see a basic animal-welfare law put in place, but there’s still a long way to go. For example, when I filed a police report about the elephant beatings in the King’s Cup tournament, I was told that they were “standard” and so there was nothing to prosecute.

 

Even if laws don’t protect elephants, people will continue to oppose abusive practices, so the reality is that elephant polo – like other cruel activities – will soon be a thing of the past. The excuse that elephants must be used in order to bring in money so that humans can provide for their care is no longer valid (if it ever was).

 

Heinecke can stop the cruel King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament. Instead of underwriting the absurd event, his company could purchase land on which rescued elephants could live.

 

The sanctuary could be modelled after a successful one outside Sukhothai, and the company could take pride in making a real difference for elephants – those already in captivity and those who are at risk of being captured in order to supply the entertainment industry.

 

It’s Minor Hotel Group’s responsibility to stop making the use of elephants profitable, because as long as it is, these animals will continue to be smuggled into Myanmar and used for entertainment after having first been taken from their mothers in the wild and smuggled into China, a country that has fewer animal-welfare laws than Thailand, and used there.

 

People around the world continue to appeal to Heinecke with the message that enough is enough – they want the elephant abuse to stop. If he heeds their call on World Animal Day, what a phenomenal impact it will have on elephants, and what a legacy he will have created.

Jason Baker is PETA Asia’s vice president of international campaigns. For more information about the organisation’s work in Thailand and throughout Asia, visit PETAAsia.com.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/guest_columnist/30355759

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-10-04

[canopy]

And why choose to go after this event and not elephant rides in Thailand? Elephant rides result in animal cruelty on a daily basis on a much larger scale. Some tourists are so shocked at the beatings the elephants get that they get off and walk. There is clearly a double standard here. If the rich try to put on a one day show then it's cruel and intolerable, but if the poor beat the crap out of elephants all over the land then just ignore it's fine. If only the people ridiculing the event actually cared about the animal. Elephants are in desperate need of help all over Thailand.

 

[The manic]

PETA is an extremist group. They kill animals mercilessly. They have no great love for animals. But they do want to eliminate humans interaction with animals. They are the marxist lenninists of the animal welfare world. Many of their supporters dont understand the true face of PETA and other similar militant animal 'right' activists,  who in Britain, do not just bully and intimidate people, destroy peoples livelhoods: they plant bombs to kill people.

https://www.petakillsanimals.com/proof-peta-kills/#petakills

 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/dec/08/animalrights.uknews

Edited October 4, 2018 by The manic

[jak2002003]

They should be saying to stop all use of elephants for entertainment. So what if they ban this polo game... what the heck do they think the elephants are going to be doing the rest of the year?

 

It is sickening to see how elephants are treated here in Thailand (and other countries)... at the elephant camps.  And the tourists that go there are ignorant to the animals suffering as they just see the elephants painting pictures and kicking footballs about.  The don't look deeper and see the animals constantly with chains around their legs, getting stabbed hundreds of times with a sharp heavy metal hook, having their ears pulled, kicked at, and they don't see behind the scenes where the animals are left chained up on a short chain for hours and hours, swaying back and forth, or the new born elephants being taken off their mothers to 'break' them. Then there is the issue of smuggling stolen wild elephants over the border to supply the camps with more babies.  

 

It's got to be easier, less expensive, and make more money... to set up some massive elephant safari park things where people can go and watch the animals behaving naturally and walking about freely to do as they please.   They can still even throw some food out for them to eat (which people never seem to get bored of doing for some reason) and then take photos.