Friday, January 06, 2017

Elephants Tortured for our Entertainment

A few weeks ago, I went on a trip to Borneo, Malaysia with my grade for a school trip. This trip was very educational for me because I learned a lot about endangered animals and it opened my eyes to a lot of things I never thought was relevant to our world. The facility that we stayed at the first two nights was a rehabilitation centre for endangered animals, but their main focus were orangutans and sun bears. The guide talked to our group about how harmful taming wild animals can be. What affected me the most, however, was what I learned about elephant riding.

Elephant riding is a popular attraction in Asian countries such as Thailand, India, and Bangladesh. It seems like a fun and harmless thing to do, but it does affect the elephant in many ways. Elephants are big, strong creatures and they rule the places they live in. Wild elephants are extremely hard and dangerous to tame. It can be life threatening to humans. In order to train them, 'mahout' (elephant trainers) must crush their spirit – starting from when they are still babies.


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