There are such things as cruelty-free elephant attractions – see Chiang Mai
Re: “PETA playing a long and devious game over pet ownership”, Have Your Say, yesterday.
Since it’s obvious that Robin Grant does not have the courage, the integrity or the human decency to admit it when he’s been proven wrong, I will no longer dignify the garbage he writes about PETA’s position on pets by responding to it.
As for his comments about elephant shows and riding, there are clearly alternatives to turning them loose in the wild or torturing them to make them perform or give rides. The Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai is a prime example of how elephants can live in a natural environment without having to perform in shows and give rides. And the tourists love it. The place was jam-packed when I visited.
To pretend that somehow the barbaric elephant camps are simply trying to provide shelter for the elephants is an outrage when you consider that many of those elephants were kidnapped from the wild.
Clearly some animals, such as the blind elephant I saw at the Elephant Nature Park, are unfit to live in the wild. But that is not the same thing as stealing baby elephants from the wilderness and dooming them to a life of torture and abuse.
Eric Bahrt
Chiang Mai
