Elephant ExploitationElephant Exploitation
An Animal Exploitation Photo Journal and Gallery Presentation from All-Creatures.org

This all creatures animal exploitation photo gallery about elephants is being presented to show the public the difference between the cute animals we see in advertising and picture in our minds and the reality that exists in the world.

Elephant Exploitation
Table of Contents

Wishful Thinking

Elephant Ecploitation - Wishful Thinking - 01 (Elephant Exploitation - Wishful Thinking - 01) We want to think of elephants living free in the wilds of Africa and Asia.
Elephant Exploitation - Wishful Thinking - 02 (Elephant Exploitation - Wishful Thinking - 02) We want to believe that every elephant is free to take a mud bath when he or she wants to.
Elephant Exploitation - Wishful Thinking - 03 (Elephant Exploitation - Wishful Thinking - 03) All of these elephants are now living free at The Elephant Sanctuary, but the reality is that they all were abused before being rescued.

Reality

| Entertainment | Ivory | Labor | Zoos |

Entertainment

Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 01
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 01)  Hawthorn Corporation's performing elephants are chained by a leg in the barn.  This is a form of continual abuse.  Boycott all animal acts.  Do not attend their performances.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 02
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 02)  Lota chained in her barn at Hawthorn. Dangerously underweight and tuberculosis exposed, Lota and Misty will be required to live in quarantine after their rescue. Their release was scheduled for August 15, 2004, but due to pending motions filed by John Cuneo of the Hawthorn Corp., their rescue is delayed. She had been chained and abused for about 48 years of her life after being kidnapped from her mother and family.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 03
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 03)  "On Aug. 20, 1994, Tyke ran amok in the streets of Kaka'ako after mauling her groomer and killing her circus trainer in Blaisdell Arena."  It's not so much that Tyke "ran amok," as the newspaper report stated, but that she came to that point in her life when she could no longer stand the years of abuse.  This tragedy never would have occurred if humans didn't abuse animals for their own entertainment.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 04
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 04)  April 23, 2002: Delhi, another Hawthorn Corporation elephant, had severe tissue damage to her front feet and several abscessed areas on her body, including areas on both hips, between her eyes, the anterior portion of her ear attachment, on her head, the elbows of both front legs, and her tail. Chemical burns on Delhi's feet were the result of the use of undiluted formaldehyde to soak Delhi's feet. When people attend traveling animal acts, they contribute to these atrocities.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 05
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 05)  I just wanted to share with you; This is Delhi, my heart! ...and this is what the circus does to an elephant's feet.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 06
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 06)  This is another photo of Delhi...and the new life a true sanctuary brings. The chance to lie down and have her first toys in 55 years.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 07
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 07)  The following pictures were taken from The Elephant Sanctuary: Again this is Delhi; before and after. Note the horrific swelling of her right front leg.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 08
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 08)  These elephants are chained by their legs and forced to stand on the hard concrete surface.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 09
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 09)  Note the bull hook that the "trainer" is using to force this elephant to walk through city streets.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 10
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 10)  This so-called "trainer" was caught on film beating a circus elephant into submission.  Every time a person pays admission to see an animal act, they are supporting this kind of cruelty.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 11
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 11)  We do not know the exact reason that this elephant collapsed against the vehicles, but it is obvious that something is terribly wrong.  Note the cruel bull hook and whip being carried by the "trainer".
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 12
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 12)  The highlighted portion of this photo shows the injury caused by the cruel treatment these circus elephants are forced to endure.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 13
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 13)  This elephant collapsed and died while in transit for a circus.  Now her body is being dragged from this trailer with a chain.  This would not have happened if the elephants were treated with love and respect and not moved about as objects of entertainment.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 14
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 14)  Baby elephants are captured rodeo-style, roped around all four legs, tethered neck-to-neck to an “anchor” elephant, and dragged from their mothers. From this point forward in their lives, every moment, every instinct, and every natural behavior is subjected to suppression and discipline at the whim of the trainer. This and the eight images below were all taken by a former Ringling Bros. employee at Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation program.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 15
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 15)  “Training” at Ringling’s breeding center. You may have wondered how Ringling Bros. gets 8,000-pound elephants to perform tricks like sitting up and even standing on their heads, but now you know. Ringling breaks the spirit of elephants when they are vulnerable babies who should still be with their mothers. The violent training sessions include using ropes, bullhooks, and electric shock prods.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 16
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 16)  Six full-grown men strain to keep a baby elephant on the ground. More training for more tricks to entertain adults who continue to bring their children to the circus to “learn about animals.”
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 17
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 17)  And yet another example of Ringling’s Center for Elephant Conservation that is actually a torture camp for training traumatized baby elephants to perform ridiculous tricks. The ropes, the tethers, the tie-downs are as blatantly obvious as the bullhook.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 18
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 18) This baby elephant is being trained to sit on a tub. Ringling falsely claims that the tricks are an extension of an elephant’s natural behavior and that they use only voice commands and rewards to get the animals to learn a set routine. In reality, the training tools are a terrifying combination of ropes, chains, bullhooks, electrical shock devices, denial of material protection and corporal punishment. Look in the eyes!
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 19
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 19) “They scream and cry and struggle as they are stretched out, slammed to the ground, gouged with bullhooks and shocked with electric prods” Sammy Haddock, former baby elephant trainer for Ringling Bros. who took these photos and gave them to PETA.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 20
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 20) This is a session to train the elephant to “lay down” on command. Bullhooks abound. This barbaric and violent training process goes on in secret, out of the public’s view, completely unmonitored by any federal, state or local law enforcement agency.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 21
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 21) Three bullhooks are used simultaneously on one elephant to force a headstand. Two handlers are using a bullhook on each hind foot while Gary Jacobson uses a bull hook to apply pressure to the back of the head. A rope is affixed to the elephant’s trunk to keep it pulled under and between the front legs.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 22
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 22) Gary Jacobson uses a bullhook to force the elephant’s trunk up for some trick.
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 23
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 23) Bullhook. This is the tool used to bruise, maim, control, “train” elephants. Swung like a baseball bat, it can inflict horrific pain and injury. Used slowly to dig into tender flesh, it can also inflict horrific pain and injury. Training is about getting a desired result by any means possible. The bullhook is always visible whenever elephants are “performing.”
Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 24
(Elephant Exploitation - Entertainment - 24) Bullhook. Seeing the solid steel structure explains how effective a tool this can be to get an elephant to succumb to humans and do tricks out of absolute fear.

Ivory

Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 01
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 01)  "Born Free CEO Will Travers (pictured with an elephant carcass)."   This elephant was killed for his or her ivory tusks.  This is an example of evilness and greed of some human beings.  People who buy ivory are buying it with the blood of elephants just like this one, and they become a co-conspirator in the murder of these innocent beings.
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 02
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 02)  These tusks are being burned in an attempt to stop the poaching of elephants for their ivory.  The process involved in procuring ivory is indeed horrific. The elephant must be killed before the ivory can be procured - stoning, poison dart resulting in slow painful death or machine gun slaughter of entire herds at waterholes. Regardless of the mode in which the elephants are killed, the process of extracting the ivory is all the same. In order to obtain all the ivory from the elephant, the hunter and poacher must cut into the head because approximately 25% of the ivory is contained in the head. What is then left on the fields of the African or Asian plains is the corpse of a tusk less elephant with a mutilated face and head.
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 03
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 03)  Illegal Domestic Ivory Trade - Worthless trinkets.  An eight-month HSUS investigation has uncovered a thriving market for illegally traded elephant ivory in an unexpected place: the United States, a nation that prides itself on the protection of endangered species and vigilance in enforcing the ban on international ivory trade.  Do not be involved in the murder of elephants.  Don't buy ivory!
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 04
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 04)  This vicious slaughter must end!! I've cried an ocean of tears, I have no words.
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 05
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 05)  166 elephants murdered!  A Taiwanese customs official measures the length of an elephant tusk along with hundreds of other smuggled tusks from Cameroon. A total of 332 tusks weighing 2,160 kilograms were found in May, 2000 near the northern Keelung port in the largest haul seized by local customs authorities.
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 06
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 06)  The Orphans: Every piece of ivory is a haunting memory of a once proud and majestic animal that should have lived three score years and ten; who has loved and been loved, and was once a member of a close knit and loving family akin to our own, but who has suffered and died to yield a tusk for a trinket.
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 07
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 07)  The Orphans: Every elephant that dies leaves family and loved ones that have grieved deeply, the dependent young doomed to die an agonizing death in terror and lonely isolation.
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 08
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 08)  The Orphans: Every person that buys ivory has blood on their hands and is an accomplice in killing an elephant, causing immeasurable sorrow and suffering.
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 09
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 09) The Orphans: Orphaned babies; the greater number, a result of ivory poaching.
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 10
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 10) The Orphans: Elephant babies still possess the capacity to show love and affection to humans. God Bless these nursery workers, who return those feelings to these fragile babies.  A true orphanage.
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 11
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 11) The Orphans: So precious, they find comfort in each others company.
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 12) The Orphans: Like human children, play behavior is demonstrated in all animals of higher intelligence.
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 13
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 13)  The Orphans: These orphans are violently separated from their mothers long before they are weaned. They need milk to survive and their new "Moms" try to make up for the tragic loss. They are the angels.
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 14
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 14) The Orphans: How does the human heart possess the capacity to destroy creatures as fragile as these?
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 15
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 15) Notice some of the smaller tusks.... "Thai customs officials show seized ivory in Bangkok on September 30, 2004. The ivory was seized on September 16, from a Thai Airways International flight from Singapore bound for Bangkok. Elephant is on the 'Ten Most Wanted Species' - most at risk from unregulated international trade and their fate will be at issue at the 13th Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). conference starting this Saturday in Bangkok." REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 16
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 16) This elephant mother was shot and killed by poachers, leaving her six month old child an orphan.  Human greed knows no mercy.
Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 17
(Elephant Exploitation - Ivory - 17) Hundreds of elephants were brutally murdered for these tusks.  We need to remember that the basic characteristics of sin in the world are the human lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. To trade in the tortured body parts of another living being fulfills two of these sinful traits: they lust over the "beauty" of the ivory, and because it has material value, they boast over possessing it.

Labor

Elephant Exploitation - Labor - 01
(Elephant Exploitation - Labor - 01) The wounds on this elephant's trunk were caused by the indiscriminate use of the Ankus (bull hook) at a temple in Bangalore. Caught in the wild, taken from their mothers, baby elephants are punished until they "succumb" to human domination. Then they are used by humans as slave labor, with constant reminders of who's in charge...the humans.
Elephant Exploitation - Labor - 02
(Elephant Exploitation - Labor - 02) A mahout (elephant trainer) uses a sharp stick to jab the elephant in the mouth. Since the elephant had refused to move in the direction the mahout wanted, a quick jab in the soft tissue of the elephant's mouth was "necessary" to force the elephant to move.

Zoos

Elephant Exploitation - Zoo - 01
(Elephant Exploitation - Zoo - 01) This is Lulu, the San Francisco Zoo's lone African elephant in her barren enclosure. No enrichment but an old tire, no grass, no greenery. Alone since the death of her companion over the summer.  The elephants that are forced to live alone is contrary to American Zoological and Aquarium Association's own guidelines and standards of care, and so by their own definition, abuse.
Elephant Exploitation - Zoo - 02
(Elephant Exploitation - Zoo - 02) This is Tinkerbelle, the San Francisco Zoo's Asian elephant. She is also alone in her enclosure, due to the euthanization of her companion within weeks of the death of Lulu's companion. Again, her surroundings are barren and completely mind-numbing, no greenery other than ornamental. A couple of bamboo branches and 2 hanging toys are her enrichment, her only company. Elephants mourn the loss of their companions and loved ones just as we do.
Elephant Exploitation - Zoo - 03
(Elephant Exploitation - Zoo - 03) Tinkerbelle appears to have been given inadequate foot care, which is necessary for captive elephants because of their lack of walking exercise in the wild.
Elephant Exploitation - Zoo - 04
(Elephant Exploitation - Zoo - 04) Tinkerbelle also appears to have pressure scaring on her back.
Elephant Exploitation - Zoo - 05
(Elephant Exploitation - Zoo - 05) This is a photo of the open sores on the right side of Tinkerbelle's face.
Elephant Exploitation - Zoo - 06
(Elephant Exploitation - Zoo - 06)  This is a photo of the open sores on the left side of Tinkerbelle's face.

See the following stories:
The Tragedy of "Burra", Orphaned by the Despicable Bushmeat Trade
The Nursery Welcomes Orphan "Mpala"
Little Morani is Learning How to Trust Humans Again
Nasalot the Orphaned Elephant
Mulika the Orphaned Elephant

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