Disturbing photos showing tormented elephants in Thailand, in order ‘to entertain’ the foreign visitors, cause a totally backlash on social media
Thailand is a popular holiday destination for Australian and western tourists. According to the Daily Mail, at least 800,000 Aussies are visiting the Asian country, with many of them being attracted by elephant rides and street shows, where the animals are forced to play tricks for entertainment.
After these heartbreaking photos urged, the tourists are begged to stop ridding the poor animals, stopping in this way to support this barbaric business. The photos first shared on Twitter show injured elephants, while others can be seen with old scares. The photos are thought to be captured in Phuket, one of the most popular holiday spots in Thailand.
You can stop inhumanity tortured on elephants by stop riding an elephant! pic.twitter.com/oYtPd0wXzI
— abang da balik (@faizalghazaly) April 12, 2019
According to a recent report of the World Animal Protection, there are at least 3,000 elephants that are being used for entertainment across Asia with most of them kept in barbaric conditions.
As a response to the disturbing images, a spokesperson for the Tourism Authority of Thailand told Yahoo news: “Please don’t ride the elephants and don’t support this business.We never support tourists riding the elephants!”
However, according to officials from Thailand, the country is hardly trying to eliminate elephant shows.
“What we are doing is collaborating with different organisations and sectors in Thailand to reduce and hopefully eliminate [this] as much as possible,” dr. Patrapol Maneeorn, Wildlife Veterinarian of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation told in a statement. “Travel businesses and individual tourists can help government agencies by boycotting businesses that do not take good care of animals.”
