ELEPHANTS, ELEPHANTS
I want to tell you about my time with the elephants. I went back to help in suffering (see blog below) because they said I could accompany the elephant vet on his rounds. He visits the working elephants of rajasthan and treats the ones that are injured.
It was an incredible experience. All the elephants we saw worked in the tourism industry...most of them taking tourists up to see Amber fort. I don't think tourists realize that these elephants are captured in the wild, beaten and starved into submission, and chained contantly when not shuttling tourists up to the fort. Some of the elephant owners own 10 elephants...each elephant brings in about 1600 rupee a day, so 4500 rupee is about $100, so you can see with 10 elephants, we are talking about real money!
The elephants are not from this desert area, they are brought in from other states of India. It's incredibly sad to see a wild animal that is incredibly intelligent and emotional put in this situation. And yet, it's our fault. Tourists make this profitable. The parallel to the meat industry is equally horrible: if consumers did not demand meat, factory farming and all its abuses would cease to exist.
So, while help in suffering is doing a wonderful thing in treating the elephants, I think an equally important task is educating the tourists to NOT take elephant rides. The elephants I saw were in very bad shape. I won't go into the details, but let's just say it was really heartbreaking.
It's important to realize the ramifications of our own travels abroad. This is just one example of many that we are causing throughout our planet.
It was an incredible experience. All the elephants we saw worked in the tourism industry...most of them taking tourists up to see Amber fort. I don't think tourists realize that these elephants are captured in the wild, beaten and starved into submission, and chained contantly when not shuttling tourists up to the fort. Some of the elephant owners own 10 elephants...each elephant brings in about 1600 rupee a day, so 4500 rupee is about $100, so you can see with 10 elephants, we are talking about real money!
The elephants are not from this desert area, they are brought in from other states of India. It's incredibly sad to see a wild animal that is incredibly intelligent and emotional put in this situation. And yet, it's our fault. Tourists make this profitable. The parallel to the meat industry is equally horrible: if consumers did not demand meat, factory farming and all its abuses would cease to exist.
So, while help in suffering is doing a wonderful thing in treating the elephants, I think an equally important task is educating the tourists to NOT take elephant rides. The elephants I saw were in very bad shape. I won't go into the details, but let's just say it was really heartbreaking.
It's important to realize the ramifications of our own travels abroad. This is just one example of many that we are causing throughout our planet.
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