"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.
This former volunteer at an Elephant Rescue Center in Thailand wants to raise awarness about the abominable living conditions of domesticated elephants.
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AnimalsTranscript
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.