These Five Actions Can Make a Big Difference for Elephants
The number is sobering: there are more than 2600 captive elephants in India. Whether chained by the legs 24/7 in temples or forced to give rides to tourists or beaten into submission in circuses, these animals know nothing but suffering and deprivation.
Here are five ways you can help:
- Never take an elephant ride or take visitors for one. Elephants forced to ferry tourists at the Amer Fort, for example, are suffering from serious, even life-threatening foot disease. Many are also visually impaired yet still forced to work. When not carrying tourists, the elephants are often chained and unable to move more than a step in any direction. They are rarely provided sufficient veterinary care and can suffer from tuberculosis, skin ailments, eye infections, blindness, cataracts, and crippling arthritis.
2. Appeal to your local temple to transition to realistic, cruelty-free mechanical elephants like Irinjadappilly Raman at Irinjadappilly Sree Krishna temple in Kerala, who raises his trunk to shower water on the faithful.
EXCITING NEWS! PETA India offered an astonishing lifelike mechanical elephant, Irinjadappilly Raman, for “Nadayiruthal” at the Irinjadappilly Sree Krishna Temple in Thrissur. @parvatweets supports the ahinsak festivities. pic.twitter.com/LtljFinKWZ
— PETA India (@PetaIndia) March 8, 2023
3. Request the Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying to issue a notification adding elephants to the list of animals prohibited from performances. Sign the appeal here.
4. Write to your local representatives asking them to include protection of elephants and all animals in their parties’ 2024 election manifestos.
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5. Share what you know with friends, family, and co-workers. Many people simply do not know how terribly captive elephants are suffering and how families are torn apart when they are stolen from their rightful homeland.
In their natural habitat where they belong, elephants are highly social animals who lavish affection and attention on their family members. They spend their days exploring, playing and experience joy, sadness, and fear. Every milestone, such as new births and the rainy season, is cause for celebration. Their mourning ritual over the death of a family member rivals any we humans have. This is the life they deserve, not one of exploitation for human pleasures and pursuits. By taking the steps above, you can help make it happen!
