Animals to people riding them: 'Get off my back!'

Lucy the elephant, of Margate, NJ, whose ears suggest she's an Asian elephant.  On her back is a relatively simple howdah, in which hunters, travelers and tourists make themselves comfortable.  

Objection to people riding elephants is more widespread than I had hoped!  No sooner did I post the article about Thailand’s "unemployed" elephants last time than I came across a thoroughly right-on article about the many animal abuses involved in tourism – including that very thing.

The story headline read, “Animal rides are cruel, advocates say. So why are we still doing them?”  And the subhead suggested a slow start toward reform: “Outrage over the unethical treatment of elephants, camels and horses is forcing attractions to consider alternate modes of transportation.”

One pitiful example of what happens to animals forced to give rides to people: photos of an Asian elephant in Thailand whose back “slopes down like a ramp, from visitors crushing her spine.”  Although that 70-something pachyderm is now retired, countless other elephants and beasts of burden around the world suffer the same fate.

(Years ago, feminist icon Gloria Steinem celebrated a birthday by riding an elephant during a trip to Asia.  That ride cost her at least one admirer I know very well.) 

Really, this story’s headline and subhead tell the story, but reading the entire thing and seeing the horrifying images with it give an excellent overview of the issue and this advice: “To ethically engage with animals, observe without touching.”      https://tinyurl.com/3c5cy5k6   

Donkeys: valued for heavy labor

It’s a dubious distinction for donkeys to be described as “humanity’s first beasts of burden,” yet once they were domesticated, around 5,000 BC, donkeys became major contributors in the developing world’s heavy-duty work. 

 Even though horses – their close cousins -- weren’t harnessed for 2 more millennia -- they nonetheless upstaged donkeys in attention but not laborious work.  Because donkeys are highly drought-resistant and able to tolerate water deprivation, they have remained in demand.

Last year’s study of donkeys’ family tree happened to be accompanied by the film Eo, starring a “soulful, barbarously misused donkey.”  (I welled up seeing that movie, and wholly agree.)

And it gets worse: now, except in developing countries where donkeys are still associated with the poor and with women more than men, they are sought after for their skins.  Boiled down, skins become ejiao, a gelatin used mostly in traditional Chinese medicine – a wasteful crime against a good, long-serving animal.  (And there again, the “traditional Chinese medicine” phrase signals nothing good, as pointed out in an earlier post here.)  

(A clarification: Mules are not the same as donkeys, but rather the sterile offspring of male donkeys, or jacks, and horse mares.)         https://tinyurl.com/58a9pt4s

                                                       A long-time sad sign 

Around Mercer County since January 15, a distinctive sign has been posted on windows and doors, poles and posts.  Its attention-getting message reads, “LOST DOG / Lawrence Twp / Village Park/ (609 phone number).”  Some versions include a picture of a beagle.

The caution “Do not chase” runs down each side, while a message across the bottom says, “Flyers willbe removed when no longer needed.”  I still see the sign around, so after 3 months, that poor, dear, loved dog must still be missing.  I can only hope s/he was found but the parent neglected to remove a few signs.

If it wouldn’t raise false hopes, I'd phone and ask.  If I hear from anyone who knows this story’s ending, I’ll happily report here.          

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                                Coming up: blogger's time off for reflection.  Back next month.