Abominable living conditions of domesticated elephants

Brut America

"A trained elephant is always a maltreated elephant."   This former volunteer at an Elephant Rescue Center in Thailand wants to raise awarness about the abominable living conditions of domesticated elephants.

Transcript

00:00I don't understand why we continue to domesticate wild elephants by violence

00:05while hiding the reality to tourists and spectators

00:08and making them believe that they are well treated.

00:30Why are elephants so dangerous?

00:35Tourists, when they see elephants going on tours

00:38or strolling on their backs

00:40or seeing them do things that seem incredible or unusual

00:43they just feel like they are facing animals that are extremely intelligent

00:47and that demonstrate their intelligence in these tours or in these walks.

00:52Except that the problem is that, indeed, elephants are very intelligent animals

00:57but they are mostly extremely wild and very dangerous animals.

01:00An elephant does not obey, it submits.

01:03In fact, to train an elephant, we use what is called training by annihilation.

01:09In practice, how does it work?

01:11Often trainers use a pick, which they call the bull hook

01:15and in fact they hit the animal repeatedly on sensitive areas for days

01:20an animal that is both hungry, thirsty and locked up

01:24and then the elephant will do everything, will obey in any order

01:28so that these injuries he received during the training

01:32are not reactivated by new blows on these same sensitive areas.

01:36Generally, these are areas where the skin is thinner

01:38because the elephant's skin is very thick

01:40which is located behind the ears, behind the knees

01:44but these are also areas that tourists do not usually see

01:47and therefore that allow to camouflage the injuries.

01:50It's complicated to recognize an elephant that is tortured

01:53but there are several, in fact it is a beam of clues

01:56that can make it possible to see that a situation is problematic

01:59and that the elephant is very likely to be tortured.

02:01Already, elephants can have frenetic movements when they are unhappy

02:06it's called stereotypes.

02:08We often see the elephant swing.

02:10We might think he's dancing.

02:12In fact, he does not dance at all.

02:14It's just that he is extremely overworked, extremely stressed.

02:17He is in acute pain and in fact he makes these movements to lighten up a little bit.

02:21Then we can often see traces of chains on the elephant's legs

02:26which show that he has been chained.

02:28An elephant that has been chained is necessarily an elephant that is abused.

02:31In general, you have to be wary of videos that present as unusual

02:37a behavior of a wild animal like an elephant with humans.

02:41Often, in most cases, this animal is an animal that has been tortured

02:47so that we can see this video.

02:51A trained elephant is always an abused elephant.

03:04Do not go to circuses with wild animals

03:07or in all places that employ them and perpetuate this industry.

03:10Be vigilant and especially talk about it around you

03:15because it is ignorance that allows this system to perpetuate.

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