Elephant rides in Thailand: Fun or cruel? | DW Documentary 

When I went to Thailand I went to an elephant sanctuary where they take care of elephants that have gone through this. They live in peace and live happily for the rest of their lives. Nobody rides them. They are fed, taken care of, bathed etc. It was wonderful.

I've been to Thailand's elephant ride once many many years ago and was extremely bothered by the bullhook which they used to hit the elephant's front skull repeatedly. I will never ever take the ride again / would never had if I knew they do such cruel things to the elephants. I did not pay to get them tortured. I just want to spend some time with the elephants. I do not support animal cruelty. Say no to elephant rides!

Freedom for the elephants

When I went to Thailand with my family, me and my father went on an elephant ride. I was 10 and wondered why they have a bullhook with them and why the elephant had white spots on them. My asked me father and he said "I don't know, honey". When we saw our guide hit the elephant, my dad understood and never talked about the ride again

It is not all black and white. In the west an elephant ride is a shame but our cows and pigs have life worse than that.

It's 2022, anyone who rides an elephant today knows better and just doesn't give a damn.

Some Humans act more like animals, than most Animals do. SMH.

The lack of transparency on elephants TRAINED & worked like these are the biggest problem...esp. in training. That's the reason why major CIRCUSES using animals are mostly dead or dying (whether the animals are ferocious, wild or gentle)...because of the brutal & ignorant methods employed to train them. Elephants are intelligent gentle giants. Like humans, they do have feelings and can emphathize and feel compassion with their counterparts. The question here is: If there are no customers or patrons, would it be better for them in the long run?

14 hours in chains is too much. I hope so he gets some more time to relax free.

TOURISTS...Please don't visit these places. They are cruel to these animals. I've been and witnessed it. Sad.

The bullhook the man used in this is very pointy. He said that his elephant is like a family member to him. Then why the pointy hook and chains? Anyway, the ways they trained the elephants need to stop. Absolutely brutal. And tourists need to educate themselves about elephants.

Stop animal abuse!!!! Freedom and respect to all elephants 🙏🐘✨

One elephant is suffering permanent damage to its back, following years of carrying tourists. The 71-year-old female named Pai Lin has a caved-in spine after being made to carry up to six tourists at a time for 25 years, according to Ms Amy Jones, a spokesman for Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT).

Stop this animal abuse! Elephants have Souls. All animals have souls.

Look at their eyes - totally dead , glazed eyes - the elephants know they are captive and enslaved , they are truly the walking dead , really cruel and barbaric .

The bull hook is so inhumane (in addition to a slew of other things I noticed in this video). One of these days, those humans will get their comeuppance!

If Ning is family, why do you have him in chains?

More and more I think people shouldn't even have pet goldfish or anything. We don't take care of our selves or our offspring, what makes us feel so good about keeping pets. Elephants should be respected and cared for when necessary but, allowed their freedom. Just as we should treat each other. Amazing animals!!! We could learn from them. If you do this to a human it's called slavery. And no I am not a vegan tree hugger or anything else like that. Just hate to see or even know about this kind of stuff. G'day

Definitely a torture !!! I have traveled to Thailand for many years and have seen a lot of what the residents do to make money. Please to all visitors in Thailand, do not ride elephants and do not attend elephant shows, this is pure animal cruelty

Elephants are wild animals. They need taming so tourist can ride them. Mistreating Elephant is not good. Using chains on there feet is inhumane.

I took an elephant for a ride a few years ago. It was very stressful and I feel quite guilty about it now. In my defence I did ask to stop after about two kilometres before the end. The walk home was a pleasure without an elephant on my back.

OUR WORLD NEEDS MIRACLES ! the lies of the cruel and stupid are said to protect greed and brutality ! LIFE ON EARTH SHOULD NOT BE HELL FOR ANIMALS !

What love and respect with Ming????? How just how???? They use the hook to hit then how harmful they pull there ears and not feed them if they disobey this is horrible and harmful the government should make this illegal i can’t stand this !!!!!

I'm Thai American n elephants are holy. I'm shocked n embarrassed. This is exactly why I won't go to a zoo.

I second that: Freedom for all wild animals. If you love them, watch over them in freedom, so that no one will kill them for any kind of belief.

Freedom for the elephants 🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘 please save the all elephants in Thailand 😭😭😭😭😭😭🙏🙏🙏

number 2 on bucket list quickly changed from elephant ride to breaking the owner of these elephants jaw with a sledgehammer

This is just cruel and horrible.

Everyday routine and being confined 14 hours straight is torture for any intelligent being. The lack of stimulation and social time is just sad.

Disgraceful cruel and unforgiveable treatment, this has got to stop

To me it is CRUEL!!!!!!!!!

This should no longer be a part of the tourist activity. no one should be making profit from those creatures and should not be supported. i hope the best for these sweet creatures.

Poor elephants 🐘. 😢 😢 😢

When an elephant sways it is distress and tortured

This is so wrong in every way possible

humans are monsters🤮🤢 Poor little animals! 😢💔

Fun fact back then in Thailand they didnt even need to chain there elephants because the owners took care of them and there is a muay boran style of the elephant and it looks similar to how elephants fight.

To upset to watch. Elephants are supposed to live in the wild free.

Please stop using animals as form of entertainment! Tourists should be responsible and shy away patronizing this kind of activity.

Pls i beg you let them free!

Let me have that pick axe & 5 minutes with those little dudes hacking the elephant. Chaining that elephant up for 14 hours is very cruel. They should build a camp for them to walk around some.

Elephants are highly intelligent and it is pure torture to use them for profit. The training is barbaric. Look up “crushing” if you don’t believe it. These animals cry, grieve and love. Just like humans. They deserve so much more then cruelty and slavery.

Did a elephant ride in Thailand back in December as it was part of a combined tour with boat and ATV through jungle. Felt so bad the entire time while on the back, don't know why I even went trough with it :S

I like to connect things to horseback riding because that's what I know the most about and here's what I think could be changed Instead of chaining an elephant to a pole or the ground and just let them roam a limited area but not too small Instead of the hooks a better thing to do would be like a bitless bridle and have some type of rope on their tusks and use your feet so like squeezing your left leg to push him to the left and vise versa for the right It's not hard to treat an animal correctly

CRUEEELLL in my opinion this is equivalent to poaching! These elephants are dead on the inside and let me not get into the BULLHOOK! I mean watching donkeys being beaten all day to carry load is quite too much and now there's a pecking method??? These are living creatures who breathe and bleed and excrete and tire and PAIN ; not chunks of wood at the carpenter's shop. And to think just for entertainment? Sure it may be exciting but also watching their real, free, expressive, selves at game drives should be enough "entertainment" And to only think they are described as "family" for these owners 😫😫(im crying on the inside) Thank you @natalietewa for sharing this doc.

Please!,I think tourists should stop riding the elephants, so that the elephants will be free from slavery.

This is so emotional.

This made me cry

So long as there is a market for this, it will continue...

The elephants are ambassadors for the remaining wild ones . When people lose their fears and gain knowledge about animals it is a win win situation. In a perfect world the elephants would be free, however this is far from a perfect world. Give is humans time and we will become better at dealing with the animal friends. 🐘🐘🐘

The bull is restless because it’s traumatized. Humans are so cruel to these precious animals. Their relationship is based on abusing the elephant if it doesn’t comply. Hate this! Free the elephants. Can’t even watch this.....too sad!

Most animals in thailand have been tortured these people believed Buddhism but they very cruel to animals in which contradiction to this crazy religion, they must not abused animals these people must be put in prison. And never again should own or cares for any elephant. They should treat God's creatures with loves,not to abused them.

His argument is ridiculous... Culture? Tradition? Way of life? A lot of other "traditions" people used to have are now unthinkable - child marriage, wife beatings, genocide, holy wars.... all these made a lot of sense back then and were considered tradition by many nations. Should i then open a business of child marriages and call it tradition so you cant sue me/cant judge me? As I said, ridiculous....

So sad..cruel!

animals shall never be used for any types of transportation

I've seen people riding dogs, cats and other animals that were tortured to let the human ride them. People r so cruel.

Depends how they feel about it

Some people here seem to think this is a competition for whatever people has done the worse things.

You're eating and testing medicine on animals but upset about riding elephant

Tourists need to wake up

I think it's fun and cruel in the same time. But it's sad. 😢😢😢

If the elephant is a member of the family then why does he carry that horrible hook that tortures the poor elephant

I’m 14 and this is my personal view: Yes, I know that there are places where the elephants are abused and the cruel method “Phajaan” is used to literally break the elephant, I am highly against this and these kinds of places should be closed for good. But what I don’t agree with is people bashing all locals who ride elephants and use them for daily work, even if they do not use bull hooks or phajaan and even if they saved the elephant from harm. We need to realise that not all people who keep elephants for work are automatically evil sadistic jerks. They are like you and me, just trying to make a living for themselves and their families, who often live below the poverty line. They provide the elephants with food, shelter and protection and in return the elephants provide a source of income for them. Elephant riding is part of their country’s culture and rich history that ought to be preserved. Humans have been riding elephants in Asia for thousands of years, even before we domesticated horses. When we ban all elephant riding, they loose their identity and culture, just like if rodeo, which is a big part of America’s culture is banned. Back in 2017, my grandma, my aunt, my cousin and my uncle went to Thailand to ride elephants at a local national park and there, workers breed and train domesticated elephants for riding. The methods they use are similar to that of horses and there is very little cruelty involved. There, they even have an elephant riding school for boys that matches elephants with them. You might often see elephants with their feet chained up. You might think this is cruel but it actually has a useful purpose. This is often done on male elephants for a few months during a period they go through called musth, which makes their hormone levels dramatically increase and makes them uncontrollable, destructive and extremely aggressive and dangerous to people and other animals. Their handlers chain their elephants’ feet to prevent the elephant from harming itself and others. It’s Just like we use nose rings and hobbles on livestock to control them and muzzles on dogs to prevent biting. If people think elephant riding is cruel, why don’t we also consider rodeo, bull nose rings, hobbles and muzzles as cruel? Another thing that bugs me is hypocrisy in this. Why is it ok to ride horses, camels and donkeys but not elephants? You may have heard that elephants suffer severe back deformities after years of riding but don’t you know that horses, particularly ponies, also suffer severe back and hoof deformities?In both cases, it is the result of the load being too heavy, too much riding at the same time without rest or poor saddle design and implementation. What we can do is improve elephant saddle design and enforce rules on when and how many times elephants can be ridden per day, just like with horses. And I am very sorry for my language but those saying “Oh elephants are wild and horses are domesticated” deserve to be slapped in the face. Domestication has nothing to do with how dangerous, trainable or fearful the animal is. Try going up to a random feral mustang horse and trust me, it will not want you to ride it. The fact that we even managed to ride elephants thousands of years ago, even before horses, shows that it is possible to train them and possibly even more easily than horses. And one more thing, domestication does not give us the right to be cruel to animals. Domestication does not automatically turn animals into robots with no instincts whatsoever. Do people think horses like it when we constantly ride them, lock them up in stalls, force them to wear mouth bits? In the wild, horses are constantly on the move, running thousands of miles a day across the huge, vast prairies. And there are also people who use cruel riding and training methods on them too. Where is all the outrage about horse cruelty? In conclusion, elephant riding should not be banned because it is considered a part of many countries’ culture and heritage. But what we can do is make it more ethical and responsible. Does anyone agree with me? What do you think of this?

That guy tries to justify the treatment of abuse.

Heartbreaking

It's a shame to see activities like this still existing nowadays. Shame on the cruel activity and shame on the dumb tourists who pay to keep the cruelty moving forward.

It would be ok if they didn't hurt the elephant but when they use sharp force, that would be like me using a needle to make my son listen or when my friend makes me mad I just stab her with a safety pin, no it's not ok

Free all Elephants around the World

It'll be difficult try to convince Thai people that this is bad. It's difficult for foreigner, especially westerner, to try to convince them. You'll be met with the usual westerner bad/white people bad attitude. We've been using that as an excuse to not do something about it for a very long time. It took us so long to finally do something about the infamous Tiger Temple despite years of local outcry.

Fun or Cruel? You know the answer DW ?

Example: if the elephants were the human & the humans were the elephants , our lifes would be more difficult

My sister rode an elephant once this was 7 or 8 years ago though so I don’t know how I felt all I remember was hiding behind a wall and running away from elephants to this day I still don’t know what happened.

Imagine if it were that you needed to eat while showering rushed.

They're treating them like bump cars

I’m sorry but I just watched a video before this , an elephant in captivity. A happy elephant in captivity. They were free a loved , no abuse . Plenty of shade , space, food,care and love . This is plenty sad ☹️

Such a shame, couldn’t believe people still doing that.

all these years I always thought Thai people love elephant because this animal became their national symbol. But why they allowed this to happened, I hope they changed.

now at khmer all of the elephant have been releast to the wild at kulen mounthant

Poor babies

Avoid these places and visit one of Thailand elephant sanctuaries.

Circus is the same thing! Stop using animals for fun!

Cruel

There's no doubt . This is a torture for sure

Very Very Sad...free the elephants...

The choice is between having the elephant taken care of in the safety of the camp, and letting it loose and risk being killed by poachers for the tusks or destroying farmlands and trampling people to death.

In America they ride horses and have race tracks to bet on the fastest horse

I don’t dare to replay, but did that guy tried to chop the elephant on the head?

Poor elephants

I rode elephants in Hua Hin, Thailand on two separate occasions in 2012 and 2015. The first time I feel like the animals were treated worse. It wasn't a nice expensive tourist spot and the handlers would walk the elephants around with those hooks on their ears all the time. The saddles weren't in nice condition and the tour guides would push you to buy jewelry and other trinkets. The second place I feel like they were treated better, and the place was more popular. There were shows and other animals around too like tigers. They did press you to buy bananas for the elephants, but what tourist destination isn't going to try and get as much money out of you as possible. I don't want to do anything like that again because now, I'm more aware of animal cruelty and those elephants in captivity their whole lives is not something I want to be supporting. I till remember the name of that first elephant I rode- Nobokun. He would toot his trunk every time his handler said his name too. I hope he's doing alright.

Ye so this could possibly be abuse every time I go back to Thailand bc it’s my home country I go elephant riding but uhh I don’t like that they hit elephants with sickles also WHY DO THOSE PEPOLE GET AN ACTUAL COMFORTABLE SEAT WHEN RIDING THEM AND I HAD TO SIT ON THE ELEPHANT’S BACK WITH THE HAIR POKING THORUGH MY SHORTS mabye cuz I went into the water. But still this may or may not be abuse

ride a horse fun or cruel?

Hi

Jahreinden gelenler cidden üzücüymüş

Easy solution. Tourists should not visit the place with riding elephant service or with chained elephant. Period. ONLY VISIT TO SANCTUARY WHETE ELEPHANTS ROAM FREE.

I thought elephants were endangered?

I took my girlfriend at the time before we got married on an elephant ride in Michigan it was very cool. I even pet the elephant talk to it and felt its hair horseback riding was fun since I have been on a horse before Elementary School

Some comments pointing out that riding an elephant is irregal. Think of riding horse, why is it regal then. Elephant was raised for transportation in thailand ever since before we have nation. The hook is meant to be only nudged them, their skin are very thick as well as thier skull. So that we can tame them.I wouldnt say that every elephant riding boot is regal in thailand, please dont support the chained elephant boot. But riding is the different story.

Maybe

Westerners also understand that Thai people catch wild elephants for riding this is the elephant house Like a foreigner raising a horse, working a horse. Breeding horses to obtain offspring for further use or sale. No one has caught wild horses for training. Thai people have elephants as working animals for hundreds of years. At present, only a few communities are left to raise elephants. For decades, wild elephants have been declared a protected species. No one can catch wild elephants to train anymore. It's difficult and illegal. The hook is an elephant control device because the elephant's skin is thick. But no elephant owner chops the hook until it bleeds, just control.

What happend to his ears?