The Truth About Elephant Rides
On the top of the bucket list of things to do for many misinformed animal lovers is to ride an elephant. Unfortunately, the elephant riding industry is terrible for the elephants and will often try to trick you into believing they love the animals after repeatedly beating and chaining them up behind the scenes. Animal interactions can be a great way to make people passionate about animals, but only if they are done responsibly. Many elephant “sanctuaries”, parks, and camps are simply using elephants for profit not caring at all about the care and health of the animals.
Many argue that an elephant is a powerful animal and thus would never let a human climb on its back if it didn’t want to, but this is false. Whips often do not work on elephants, so instead of whips, the elephant handlers (also commonly referred to as mahouts) use a weapon called the bullhook. The bullhook is a firm rod with a hook on the end, if an elephant doesn’t comply with the mahouts command it will be beaten. Most of this training happens when they are calves and the animal posses little threat to the mahout. When the elephant grows, if it becomes less submissive to the beating on its thicker skin many mahouts will move to beating it on its face and mostly its sensitive ears. They grow up in submission likely not realizing they have the power to kill their mahouts. Chaining elephants is also a bad process because it can be uncomfortable for the elephant to be restrained by its feet. Some parks, like the Mason Elephant Park (a common tourist attraction in Bali, Indonesia) argue that the chaining is only during feeding and at night to benefit the elephants but many other parks (like AZA accredited zoos, real sanctuaries, ethical elephant parks) prove that these things can easily be done safely without chains.
Elephants, while kind creatures, do not appreciate having you on their back. They will never willingly perform in a circus or let you sit on them. Many people seem to forget elephants have not been domesticated, they are still unpredictable wild animals. All of this is for something as insignificant as a Instagram photo.
If you want to have a responsible interaction with an elephant there are many places you could go, here is a list of places that are good and places you should avoid: https://www.responsiblevacation.com/vacations/elephant-conservation/travel-guide/elephant-sanctuaries-which-we-do-and-dont-support
