Dozens of chained elephants who suffered ‘psychological anguish’ as they were forced to perform tricks for tourists have been released from their shackles in Thailand after an outcry.
Heart-warming footage released today shows the animals grazing freely and playfully interacting with each other at the Maesa Elephant Camp, in Chiang Mai.
‘Cruel’ conditions at the camp were exposed last November by activists who revealed that baby elephants were ‘ripped from their mothers’ and then forced to learn stunts such as painting pictures, kicking footballs and throwing darts.
Heart-warming footage released today shows the animals grazing freely and playfully interacting with each other at the Maesa Elephant Camp, in Chiang Mai.
Elephants wandering freely after being released from their chains following an outcry
Locked up: An elephant pictured last year has a chain fastened around its leg at the camp in Thailand where activists saw animals being hit with bullhooks and dragged by their ears
‘Cruel’ conditions at the camp were exposed last November by activists who revealed that baby elephants were forced to learn stunts such as painting pictures, kicking footballs and throwing darts.
But bosses at the camp have now begun to remove the shackles and are allowing some of its 77 elephants to wander freely around the grounds.
Executive officer Anchalee Kalamaphichit said they were planning to remove the chains from all of the elephants in the coming weeks.
She said: ‘The centre has been criticised for a long time about how we chain the animals in here, so we decided to free them.
‘However, living freely is a new thing to these elephants. They need time to adapt into their new way of living so we chose to start with the eldest and friendliest of the elephants.
‘We are glad that they appeared to be happier living without chains and their mahouts, so hopefully we can free the rest of them soon.’
Camp bosses said they were planning to remove the chains from all of the elephants in the coming weeks.
A freed elephant plays with a keeper at the camp in Thailand
British lobby group Moving Animals said last year that its activists saw elephants swaying in distress in a ‘clear sign of the psychological anguish they face’.
They filmed elephants being dragged by their ears and being hit with sharp bullhooks by their keepers.
Moving Animals founder Amy Jones said calves were forced to undergo ‘the traditional and brutal, days or weeks long, process of breaking a young elephant’s spirit.’
She added: ‘It is heartbreaking to think that these innocent babies at Maesa Elephant Nursery are at the start of a lifetime of captivity that will feature sharp bullhooks, cruel performances, and severe psychological stress.’
Moving Animals last year called for an outright ban on the advertising and sale of ‘unethical’ elephant tours to ‘cruel places like Maesa Elephant Nursery’.
‘Elephants continue to face relentless physical brutality and psychological suffering to take part in rides, processions and performances,’ they said.
The trips ‘are also highly dangerous to tourists who are frequently attacked, and sometimes killed, by stressed out tourist elephants,’ they added.
The elephants had previously been kept on short chains strapped to their legs but are now free to roam around the camp grounds
Two elephants are seen roaming free at the Thai camp that was previously criticised for keeping them chained up
Bosses at the camp unchained their elephants after being exposed by animal rights activists
On display: A visitor takes a picture on a phone camera as an elephant ‘paints’ a picture
In captivity: Two elephants at the Maesa Elephant Camp in northern Thailand, where the animals are taken into captivity at the age of just two years
An elephant is dragged along by its ear at the Thai camp in a photo released by activists last year to expose ‘cruel’ conditions at the Thai camp
Behind bars: Two elephants in an enclosure at the camp where female elephants are ‘relentlessly’ bred and at least one of them has already given birth to six babies, activists say
Tourist attraction: People are seen taking pictures of an elephant on their phones – a practice which animal rights activists want to have stopped
An elephant paints a picture with its trunk in a stunt performed for tourists, a practice which animal rights groups have strongly criticised
Practice: One of the elephants holds a hat in its trunk. A set of goalposts is in the background, indicating that the animals will be forced to perform football stunts
Hoist: A man climbs on an elephant’s trunk at the camp in northern Thailand
‘Anguish’: Activists say that elephants such as this one have their spirits crushed in a process known as Phajaan before they are forced to learn ‘unnatural’ tricks
Entrance: A sign for the Maesa Elephant Camp where elephants are forced to perform stunts which activists have described as ‘heartbreaking’