{"id":751876,"date":"2018-03-17T13:15:14","date_gmt":"2018-03-17T13:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arkcenter.us\/?p=751876"},"modified":"2018-03-18T11:32:55","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T11:32:55","slug":"elephants-beaten-with-bullhooks-for-thailands-annual-polo-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=751876","title":{"rendered":"Elephants Beaten With Bullhooks for Thailand\u2019s Annual &#8220;Polo&#8221; Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>PETA ASIA:<\/strong> <em>&#8216;Breaking eyewitness footage shows elephants who were forced to participate in Thailand\u2019s cruel King\u2019s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament being repeatedly struck and gouged with bullhooks \u2014 sharp steel-tipped rods resembling fireplace pokers \u2014 and their ears being violently yanked. One mahout can be seen hitting an elephant on the head approximately 15 times, and blood appears to be visible.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>The event took place last weekend next to Thailand\u2019s Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort, owned by the Minor Hotel Group&#8230;The only way to make elephants tolerate having humans riding around on their backs for polo games or any other reason is to \u201cbreak\u201d them. They\u2019re chained and beaten with bullhooks or other weapons and constantly threatened with violence to keep them afraid and submissive&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Throughout Thailand, baby elephants are routinely beaten and subjected to other egregiously cruel forms of training. Their complex emotional states and multifaceted relationships are left in tatters. Using these endangered animals in silly spectacles is shameful. Thailand should be focused on protecting these majestic animals in their natural habitats, not exploiting them for human amusement&#8217;.<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.petaasia.com\/features\/thailand-kings-cup-elephant-polo-tournament\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>SOURCE&#8230;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED VIDEO:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ak7WUq_bYzE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PETA ASIA: &#8216;Breaking eyewitness footage shows elephants who were forced to participate in Thailand\u2019s cruel King\u2019s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament being repeatedly struck and gouged with bullhooks \u2014 sharp steel-tipped rods resembling fireplace pokers \u2014 and their ears being violently yanked. One mahout can be seen hitting an elephant on the head approximately 15 times, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":751880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16,20,25],"tags":[28,30],"class_list":["post-751876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-justice","category-welfare","tag-entertainment","tag-exploitation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=751876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":751881,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751876\/revisions\/751881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/751880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=751876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=751876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=751876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}