After a four-year pause, the abusive elephant games at Nepal’s Chitwan Elephant Festival were brought back. Footage shows elephants being beaten with sticks for these games. Please act now to help stop elephant abuse.
Elephants in Nepal Beaten With Sticks for Games
The investigation footage reveals elephants forced to take part in Nepal’s cruel Chitwan Elephant Festival having their ears violently yanked and being repeatedly struck and jabbed with bullhooks — spear-like weapons with a sharp hook — when not being used in games. Mahouts (handlers) also beat the terrified animals with sticks and improvised wooden knives.
As the video above shows, elephants suffer terribly for this festival. After hearing from PETA entities, the festival's former sponsors previously cut ties with the event. However, the cruel festival is still set to take place again this year. When these elephants aren't being forced to perform at this festival, they're used for rides by tourists visiting Chitwan. Elephants who are forced to "play" football or give rides are controlled through physical violence and psychological domination. They're chained and beaten with bullhooks or other weapons and constantly threatened with violence to keep them afraid and submissive.
Elephants used for "games," rides, shows, and other forms of entertainment suffer tremendously. Even when not performing, they're typically deprived of everything natural and important to them.
Let's take an honest look at the reality of life in captivity for elephants compared to the life they would have in nature. We can see that the "trainers" have utterly degraded these magnificent animals. Elephants are highly social beings who thrive in matriarchal herds, protecting each other, caring for their babies, and travelling many kilometres daily. They experience joy, sadness, and fear. Their rituals of mourning the deaths of family members rival any that humans have developed. But throughout Nepal, elephants are routinely beaten and subjected to other egregiously cruel forms of "training." Their complex emotional states and multifaceted relationships are left in tatters.
Using these majestic, endangered animals in silly spectacles is shameful. Nepal should be focused on protecting them in their natural habitats, not exploiting them for human amusement.
Previously, more than a dozen companies dropped their support of the King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Thailand after a PETA exposé revealed abuse similar to that documented in Nepal. The tournament's organisers ceased their elephant polo events operations in Thailand – making the Chitwan Elephant Festival the only event in the world in which elephants are shamefully abused and forced to "play" games.
Please fill out the form below to tell the event organisers and supporters to cancel these cruel “games.”
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