This archive report was first published on 25 June 2020.
Published on June 25, 2020, a shocking video has been released by World Animal Protection (WAP), a UK-based animal rights group, exposing the abusive taming of a baby elephant for Thailand's tourism industry.
The footage, taken on a hidden camera last year, shows a two-year-old female elephant being forcibly separated from her mother and confined to a small space known as the 'crush box'.
Chains and ropes are used to restrain the distraught calf, who struggles to escape, while repeated jabs with a bullhook, a long rod with a sharpened metal tip, are used to teach basic commands, often causing bleeding.
Approximately 3,000 domesticated elephants work in Thailand's tourism sector, used for rides and performing tricks for travelers.
Animal rights activists have long argued that elephants endure abuse in the tourism industry, starting with the so-called 'crush' process to tame them when young.
'We need to ensure that this is the last generation of elephants used for commercial tourism,' said Jan Schmidt-Burbach, a wildlife veterinarian with WAP.
WAP has chosen not to release the location of the camp to avoid repercussions for those who shot the video.
As the coronavirus pandemic halts global travel, hundreds of elephants are being returned to their home villages with their handlers, but conservationists fear the return of 'the crush' if travel restrictions are relaxed in the coming weeks.
