Exhausted Elephant Dies After Giving Joyrides

Sambo the elephant  collapsed and died after giving a 40-minute tourist ride near a religious shrine.

Elephant dies of exhaustion after carrying tourists in scorching heat in Cambodia https://t.co/NsPBR6QkM6 pic.twitter.com/MsvfSm5Il0

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Sambo fell to the ground and couldn’t get back up. She had reportedly suffered a heart attack and had been forced to work that day in temperatures of around 40°C.

PETA UK Director Mimi Bekhechi issued the following statement about the elephant’s death:

Sambo’s life was utter misery from the moment when humans decided to use her as a tourist attraction. Elephants like Sambo who are used for rides are typically torn away from their mothers when they’re just babies and violently “broken” through domination, fear and punishment. The elephants forced to carry tourists around are often denied food and water for hours and aren’t given any breaks from the extreme heat – which is likely what caused Sambo’s heart attack. When not being forced to give rides, they are chained, barely able to move. In the wild, these highly emotional animals have complex social networks, and they experience the same loneliness and grief that humans do when they’re separated from their families and forced to live without such important relationships. There is absolutely no excuse in this day and age for commandeering these beautiful, intelligent animals for the fleeting entertainment of tourists. Tour operators still promoting these cruel attractions must do the right thing and remove them from their packages, and we urge anyone visiting countries that offer elephant rides or other animal attractions to leave them off their itineraries.

 Captive elephants forced to give tourists rides in Jaipur are also cruelly treated and made to suffer from physical and mental distress. See what Animal Welfare Board of India–authorised inspectors, including from PETA India, found:

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