Do Thai elephants really belong as entertainment?
- Alex
- Mar 17
- 2 min read
The reality of Thai elephants in captivity.
By: Alex, Year 7
Most Thais agree that the elephant is one of the most important animals in the country. One that many people view as a remarkable species and a spectacular sighting to see in the wild. Throughout history, elephants, particularly captive elephants, have played an important role in shaping the culture and history of Thailand, from fighting in wars, to providing sustenance for Thai people.
However, with changing times, the way some people think of elephants is not only in captivity but doing party tricks to entertain people. To add insult to injury, no-one really thinks how the elephants feel about what is really going on behind the scenes to get elephants to act in such an unnatural way.
In many shows the trainers, known as mahouts, use bull hooks on there elephants to encourage them keep preforming. Many captive elephants in Thailand can be seen with visible scars and tears on their skin and ears as a result of this. Apart from physical pain, elephants in entertainment face many psychological problems because of their living conditions.
Elephants are known to be incredibly intelligent creatures, with high degrees of empathy as seen in their social behaviors such how they play and in mourning the dead. These social skills take up several vital years of the first four years of their lives to develop which would naturally be spent with their mothers. Recent research has shown that many elephants face issues such as PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) as a result of premature separation from their mothers, which is a frequent practice, to make training and human imprinting easier. Older elephants also can be seen displaying behaviors such as pacing and self harm to cope with their psychological trauma.
The underlying lesson to be learnt from this isn’t vilifying zoos that keep elephants in captivity, as many do so in adequate conditions, however with elephant abuse being such commonplace in Thailand, it begs the question of our involvement in financially supporting these practices. Thai elephants should be with other elephants in their natural habitat, something that can’t be provided in captivity. But as long as zoos remain necessary to ensure their survival, we should be sure we are doing our research and avoid the many places where abuse occurs.
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