Footage released by animal rights group shows "abusive" training of Thai elephants

Video obtained for an investigation into alleged animal cruelty shows how some baby elephants in Thailand are taken from mothers and made to endure seemingly abusive training techniques to perform tricks to entertain tourists.

World Animal Protection, a wildlife charity, released footage filmed secretly at several camps between December 2018 and January 2020, showing distressed mothers and elephant calves being separated. The elephants which are just 1-2 years old are left isolated and endure physical and mental trauma, the wildlife charity says.

The video clips show eight elephants undergoing a four-step training programme that World Animal Protection refers to as "the crush". This involves hobbling the elephants with chained legs, handlers striking sensitive areas with bull hooks or taking them to loud, busy highways.

Reuters could not independently verify the content of these videos.

There are four stages to the training - separation from their mothers, submission training using bull hooks to inflict pain, learning basic skills such as walking on their hind legs, and advanced skills such as twirling hula hoops, painting, and receiving money from humans, the charity says.

"To have the sharp hook, you know, scratching on their forehead until it's bloodied...it is not only physically that they are hurting, but you're killing their soul," said Roatchana Sungthong, the World Animal Protection country director for Thailand.

Thailand's environment minister on Monday (June 29) told Reuters animal cruelty would not be tolerated and if the footage was authentic, swift action would be taken against the perpetrators.

According to World Animal Protection, during the coronavirus outbreak, at least 85 elephant camps in Thailand were forced to close, laying off over 5000 staff, and many elephants were forced to trek miles across the country by foot to reach their legal owners.

World Animal Protection is advocating for camps to be more "elephant friendly" and put an end to the exploitation of animals entirely, as well as reminding holiday-makers to consider 'turning their backs' on unethical tourism practices.

Laithongrien Meepan, an elephant expert and owner of an elephant camp in Ayutthaya north of Bangkok, said he believed the videos were staged and showed outdated methods that were formerly used on elephants caught in the wild.

Laithongrien, whose camp has not been accused of abusive practices, said elephant handlers would not use such methods. He added that there are now laws that stipulate that elephant owners must register their elephants with the Interior Ministry and that people are not allowed to capture wild elephants.

"We are now in a process of meeting to file a police report to get them (the people who shot the video and in it) arrested. Everything needs to be under the law, and even I can't escape it," said Laithongrien Meepan, owner of Ayutthaya Elephant Kraal camp.

"If mahouts injure their elephants, they are deemed as low-class, unknowledgeable, disrespectful," he added.

World Animal Protection's Roatchana said the video was real and not a set up.

Thailand's minister of natural resources and environment, Varawut Silpa-archa, said cruelty to elephants as seen in the video will not be tolerated and if this is happening, those involved will be dealt in accordance with the law.

(Production: Artorn Pookasook, Vorasit Satienlerk, Juarawee Kittisilpa, Jiraporn Kuhakan)

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