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Conservation: Elephants Suffer – Do Not Ride On Them – Say No To Elephant Rides
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Read this article and learn how your Elephant Ride makes the Elephants suffer in silence as their backs aren’t made to be ridden, that is why we have to say no to Elephant Rides. You will be doing a service to wildlife if you go on a safari or any other place where a elephant ride is being offered and do not travel on them.
The skeleton of an elephant is not very suited to carrying anything more than the elephant’s own weight. If it is necessary to ride an elephant, from a health perspective it is better to sit on the back of the neck, rather than on the back. The arching shape of an Asian elephant’s back means the weight of an ordinary howdah or seat is concentrated on the middle of the spine (backbone). Some tourist-carrying elephants have symptoms of nerve damage and chronic inflammation in that part of the spine. Some designs of saddles or seats are less risky than others.
There are types, both traditional and modern, that leave an empty space along the spine, which reduces the risk of back pain. The long-term health risks also depend on the number of people the elephant is carrying at the same time, and the duration of working hours.. Another vulnerable body part in the elephant is the feet, because they have to support the massive body. Elephants can safely walk on rather soft ground, such as natural terrain with vegetation. Their feet are not suited for walking on hard surfaces such as paved roads, because this results in abrasion of the protective soft pad on the foot soles. If the soles get severely worn, the bones inside the feet end up with too little cushioning against the ground, which makes walking painful.
While not at work, most elephants are kept chained. From a health perspective, the riskiest chaining practices are those in which the elephant has to stand in an unnatural position (such as with the back legs pulled backwards instead of directly under the body) because the abnormal weight distribution can harm the joints. Some people believe elephants do not feel pain when hit by their mahouts, because the elephants do not react visibly. The reason is that elephants will usually be punished harder if they do scream or otherwise react.
Elephant skin is very sensitive to touch and pain. The surface is rich with nerve endings, as elephants use a lot of skin-to-skin touching in their social communication. An elephant will react if tickled with a feather, if it has not been trained to suppress visible expressions of what it feels. Almost all elephants that are used in tourist rides have been through the process of “breaking of the will”.
It is called by different names in different languages, for example pajan in Thai. After initial training, the usual handling system also relies on pain as the controlling mechanism, although many tourist operations today have instructed their mahouts to only punish elephants when tourists are out of sight.
The pain-based method is a source of unease to many mahouts and owners themselves. It is contradictory to the values many of them actually hold, such as compassion for other beings. This is one of the reasons they often find it difficult to discuss it with public, tourists and media. So the next time you find an elephant ride being offered say no. Educate you friends and family members about the problems elephants go through and create awareness about this issue.
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