Want to know exactly why riding elephants is so cruel?
Re: “PETA should stop criticising and climb aboard elephant welfare campaign”, Have Your Say, March 24.
I question Stephen Chojnacki’s’s sincerity when he invites PETA to work with Minor International to improve elephant welfare.
Here in Chiang Mai I notice that all over town there are agencies promoting elephant tourism that now have signs reading: “No Riding”. Of course the polo elephant tournaments that Minor promotes are all about elephant riding.
What’s so bad about elephant riding? First, the elephant has a protruding backbone which makes the elephant particularly vulnerable to spinal injury if people ride on it.
Perhaps more importantly, the training methods to break an elephant’s spirit so he’ll be willing to perform and give rides involve the torturing of baby elephants for days. (Google “elephant Crushing”.)
It’s important to understand that an elephant is not trained like a dog through positive reinforcement. So PETA has made its position clear: End elephant riding and elephant polo. There is nothing further to talk about and Mr Chojnacki knows it!
Eric Bahrt
Chiang Mai
