PETA: ‘Sometimes the most effective way to raise awareness and spark compassion is to present a visual image so jarring that it literally turns heads. That’s exactly what PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk did on December 14 by dressing like an elephant and being “beaten” by a handler at a popular Jaipur tourist spot to promote banning elephant rides in India. Chained for effect, Ingrid and her mahout (elephant trainer) demonstrated to members of the media, Jaipur residents, and Amber Fort visitors how elephants who are forced to give tourist rides are enslaved, beaten until their spirits break, and denied all freedom…
The nightmare of captivity is constant for elephants who are forced to haul tourists, even when they’re injured, lame, or blind, as many are. They endure barbaric training to “break” them as youngsters and then routine beatings and psychological torment. Trainers even pierce elephants’ sensitive ears and drill holes into their tusks, which contain live bone. Instead of spending their days socializing and foraging for food as they do in nature, captive elephants are chained when they’re not working—sometimes with spiked hobbles—and forced to stand on hard concrete floors, which causes painful and sometimes fatal foot problems’. SOURCE…
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