An skilled on Asian elephants is sounding the alarm about “elephant sanctuaries” after a vacationer was killed whereas visiting one in Thailand.
Blanca Ojanguren García, 22, a regulation pupil on the College of Navarra, died final week. She was bathing an elephant at Koh Yao Elephant Care when the 50-year-old animal killed her with its trunk, in line with Spanish media.
Round 18 folks had been on the sanctuary on the time, together with the sufferer’s boyfriend, the corporate advised Spanish newspaper El Mundo. No different guests had been injured, and particulars concerning the incident, resembling how the animals had been handled, are nonetheless unknown.
However the incident raises questions on how protected elephant sanctuaries, which lure vacationers with guarantees of getting up shut with the animals, actually are.
Issues about elephant tourism are being raised after a Spanish pupil was killed by one final week. (iStock/Getty Photos)
Duncan McNair, the CEO of London-based charity Save the Asian Elephants, spoke with Fox Information Digital concerning the tragedy and warned that vacationers ought to assume twice earlier than visiting one.
“‘Sanctuary,’ a bit like ‘havens’ and ‘orphanages,’ is a very nasty term that is usually devoid of meaning or certainly devoid of accuracy,” McNair mentioned. “The vast majority of sanctuaries in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam, and Cambodia … are not ethical. They are brutal, and they do it all for money.”
It’s nonetheless unknown why the elephant struck García, or how the sanctuary’s handlers handled the creature earlier than the killing. However McNair mentioned whereas it is potential the elephant was unaware of its power, it was extra seemingly lashing out towards the circumstances it was saved in.
“[The trunk] is an extraordinarily diverse and durable organ that is multipurpose,” McNair defined. “An elephant does not randomly lash round or swing round with its trunk. … It is wholly unlikely that this was an accident.
McNair advises against tourists having up-close interactions with elephants, citing concerns for both parties. (iStock/Getty Images)
“So why did it occur? Effectively, in fact, as a result of the elephant, which was like just about all elephants in captivity for industrial exploitation, was being saved in a very unnatural state, in excessive stress.”
He emphasized that, though elephants are gentle and intelligent animals, their “calmness” does not mean they are tamed. And they can snap at any threat or stressor they perceive, even a well-meaning tourist.
“Elephants are wild animals. … They’re saved in captivity, having been brutalized into submission,” McNair explained. “However that does not imply they’re tamed. It merely implies that they’re terrified for spans of time.
“In the event that they see their probability, or in the event that they’re overstressed, they’ll assault and kill.”
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Elephant sanctuaries lure vacationers with alternatives to the touch elephants, however they will pose extreme dangers. (iStock/Getty Photos)
The animal rights advocate famous that whereas elephants are “wondrous and complex” herbivores, they’ll nonetheless reply aggressively when they’re threatened.
“They react, sometimes extremely, when something flashes across their corner of vision,” McNair defined. “And, so, to put an elephant that’s been abused in captivity probably for decades, in exact proximity with a young woman who’s probably got very little experience of elephants and no proper training, is an absolute recipe for disaster.”
McNair, who additionally works as a company lawyer, additionally famous that the mistreatment of elephants begins earlier than the animals step foot into sanctuaries. Elephants are sometimes snatched by poachers who commit atrocities starting from killing moms in entrance of their kids to repeatedly stabbing child elephants into submission.
Elephants, although mild, are harmful to people when abused. (iStock/Getty Photos)
“With elephants who have been brutalized and abused for use in tourism, they are extremely dangerous. … Not only are these activities so catastrophic for the elephants, they’re deadly dangerous for humans,” he mentioned.
By means of Save the Asian Elephants, McNair has advocated for laws to cease abusive practices towards the animals, such because the Animals (Low-Welfare Actions Overseas) Act that handed within the British Parliament in 2023. This work additionally just lately led to his being named a Authorized Hero of the 12 months 2024 by the Regulation Society of England and Wales.
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Now, he and different animal advocates are scrutinizing tourism firms that encourage unethical therapy of elephants. Some sanctuaries do deal with elephants ethically, McNair mentioned, and he suggested that vacationers do analysis earlier than reserving their journeys for each their very own security and the security of the elephants.
“[We want] to try to steer the market of animal tourism from brutal to ethical,” McNair defined. “That’s the real intention, not to close down travel companies, nothing like that. It’s to help the animals and to help people who want to make money out of animal tourism. … That’s fine, but be ethical about it.”
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