Cruelty Against Elephants
Ownership of elephant is considered as a feudal status symbol and around 700 elephants are owned by people and temples. These elephants are rented out for more than 10,000 festivals and processions in which a single elephant may generate revenue up to $5000 a day according to their status. These animals have to endure long and noisy parades, loud firecrackers, may need to stand near flames, travel long distances in open shabby vehicles and walk on tarred roads in the scorching sun for hours, denying even food, water and sleep, in the name of religion and tourism promotion. They are often abused by drunk and brutal mahouts. Around half of the mahouts are found to have drinking problems. January to April are the cruelest months for the captive elephants in Kerala when the places of worship celebrates various annual festivals.
Read more about this topic: Elephants In Kerala Culture
Famous quotes containing the words cruelty and/or elephants:
“Of all the animals with which this globe is peopled, there is none towards whom nature seems, at first sight, to have exercised more cruelty than towards man, in the numberless wants and necessities with which she has loaded him, and in the slender means which she affords to the relieving these necessities.”
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