THE ELEPHANT IN THE POOL: The cruelty and exploitation of elephant tourism in Thailand
Elephants are natural-born swimmers, but critics view swimming exhibition as a forced performance. More broadly, they see it as an example of how animals are exploited for the amusement of humans.
DAVID LUEKENS: An Asian elephant struts into the pool and dips its head beneath the surface, using the tip of its trunk like a snorkel. Standing on its hind legs as the water relieves the gravitational burden of its body, the animal wades between two men offering bananas at either end of the pool. In a room down below, awestruck children watch through wide glass windows. Some of the people who have attended this elephant swimming exhibition at Khao Kheow Open Zoo southeast of Bangkok are surprised that it has been criticized as an example of animal cruelty and exploitation…
The latest outcry began in October 2021 after a photo by Australian photojournalist Adam Oswell won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) award for Photojournalism. Run by the Natural History Museum (NHM) of London since 1964, the annual WPY is a prestigious contest. Taken at Khao Kheow and titled “Elephant in the Room,” Oswell’s photo shows an elephant with its head and body submerged while a trainer, or mahout, swims above in what looks to be a relatively small tank. People of various ages, all with Asian features, are pictured watching the elephant.
WPY host Chris Packham called the scene “wholly unacceptable.” In acceptance comments, Oswell said he thinks the image “shows a disconnection with nature (and) how we manufacture nature.” Some reactions to the photo on social media were harsher, often deploying adjectives like “sickening,” “vile” and “barbaric”…
Oswell’s photo was not the first case of media documentation sparking outrage over Khao Kheow’s elephant swimming exhibition. In 2018, an online petition demanding that “officials shut down this zoo and hand over their elephants to a sanctuary” collected over 130,000 signatures. “Exhausted elephants are being forced to perform underwater tricks for tourists in Thailand,” wrote British news outlet The Sun at the time.
Elephants are natural-born swimmers, but critics view Khao Kheow’s swimming exhibition as a forced performance. More broadly, they see it as an example of how animals are exploited for the amusement of humans. “The training for this type of show usually starts with the removal of a calf from its mother and uses fear and pain-based punishment,” says one of the captions accompanying Oswell’s photo on the NHM website…
Some Thai people see a double standard in how Khao Kheow, and Thailand in general, have become lightning rods for animal-related criticism from the West. They wonder why, for instance, the elephant swimming exhibitions held at zoos in Germany and Switzerland have drawn minimal criticism despite appearing to share similarities with the one at Khao Kheow…
For example, some Westerners insist that all of Thailand’s roughly 3,800 captive elephants should be moved to sanctuaries where interaction with humans is limited to veterinary care and observation from a distance… In a country where people have been living with elephants for many centuries, some Thais interpret calls for fundamental changes to captive elephant training and management as threats to Thai traditions and sensitive notions of cultural identity…
Khao Kheow is the only zoo in Thailand, and one of only four in the world, according to Khao Kheow’s website, where elephants can be viewed through underwater windows… Khao Kheow has been certified by the South East Asian Zoos Association (SEAZA), which is a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). The ZPO maintains that all of its zoos are guided by the principles of conservation, research, education and recreation… Meanwhile, Western travel agencies and animal welfare organizations are imposing their own strict guidelines on Thai elephant facilities, steering tourists away from those that don’t fully comply. SOURCE…
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