BABY ELEPHANT SMUGGLING EXPOSED premieres on Link TV on Wednesday July 25 (graphic photos in post)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.enn.com/press_releases/4046

From: Link TV
Published July 23, 2012 09:56 AM

Original investigative report Baby Elephant Smuggling Exposed: How Thailand’s Tourist Industry is Driving a Brutal Trade in Baby Elephants premieres on Link TV on Wednesday July 25, 2012 at 9:30 pm ET (6:30 pm PT) and will be available online at http://www.linktv.org/elephantsmuggling

The television report produced by The Ecologist Film Unit, in association with Link TV’s environmental news magazine Earth Focus and the UK-based Elephant Family, documents the illegal cross border trade in endangered wild elephants taking place between Myanmar and Thailand. Demand for elephants largely comes from Thai tourist camps where elephant rides are a widely promoted activity and from the entertainment industry. Capturing elephants from the wild for this trade often involves the killing of mothers and other protective family members with automatic weapons. Calves are subjected to a brutal breaking-in process where they are tied up, confined, starved, beaten and tortured in order to break their spirits. It is estimated that only one in three survives this “domestication” process. The Asian elephant is an endangered species and the capture of wild elephants is a threat to the survival of the wild populations.


"The Phajaan, a spirit breaking ritual, involves tying up baby elephants tied up with no food and water and relentless beatings for days on end."

Currently captive elephants do not have to be registered until they are eight years old and there are no practical or reliable systems – such as a DNA database – in place to distinguish captive-bred elephants from those taken from the wild. The current market price for a healthy broken-in baby elephant is between $21,000-$31,000 and with the rapid growth of tourism there are strong incentives for the trade. As Myanmar increasingly opens up to the rest of the world, there are fears that the growth of a tourist industry there could be disastrous for the countries remaining wild elephants.

Baby Elephant Smuggling Exposed will be broadcast nationally in the US on Link TV (DIRECTV channel 375 and DISH Network channel 9410) on Wednesday July 25, 2012 at 9:30 pm ET (6:30 pm PT) and 11:30pm PT (1:30am ET), and on Friday July 27 at 5:30 pm ET (2:30 pm PT) and 9:00pm ET (6:00pm ET). It is also available for streaming after Sunday July 22 at http://www.linktv.org/elephantsmuggling . The report was produced with generous support from the Woodtiger Fund and the Shared Earth Foundation.


"Very often baby elephants die from the stress of a spirit breaking ritual called The Phajaan."

ABOUT THE PRODUCERS:

FULL story at link.

[xchrom]

1. ...

[AtomicKitten]

2. This godawful treatment has to stop.

[Beringia]

3. that is heart-rending

Tourists should shun these attractions in Thailand