With humans encroaching on their lands and cattle consuming their resources, it’s no wonder that Sri Lanka’s elephants have been acting up lately. Over the weekend, two older men were killed by the animals and veterinarians are so fed up with the government’s handling of them that they announced a five day strike to bring attention to these increasing conflicts between man and beast. |AFP|
Greasy street fairs, roasted nuts, and dog shit on sidewalks are but a few of the many long standing NYC traditions that need to go away, but the walking of the Ringling Bros. elephants through the streets is one of the cruelest customs (along with hansom cabs). The depressing spectacle is further compounded when they’re forced to march in the rain like earlier this week. Isn’t circus life harsh enough?
More photos at Huffington Post
Remember back a few months ago when PETA released that heartbreaking video showing circus workers from Ringling Bros. beating elephants with bull hooks and generally torturing them? Well here’s the baby elephant edition. The animals rights group managed to obtain photos of young pachyderms allegedly getting electroshocked, bound and abused by carnies. With the original footage prompting a federal investigation within days after it was released, it’s only a matter of hours before these agonizing images do the same.
Barack Obama’s notoriously big ears continue to be a source of mockery with this presidential pachyderm painted by Terdsak Phiromgripak, part of a 100 elephant display in Amsterdam to be auctioned off in support of saving the species in Asia.
Photo by Hamperium
Even the cold hearted U.S. Department of Agriculture was disturbed by PETA’s undercover video of elephants getting beat in the face with bull whips by cruel circus handlers and will be investigating. Ringling Bros. of course denied they mistreat their pachyderms, but the Animal Welfare Institute might disagree. They also filed a lawsuit that is almost nine years in the making against the circus for the harsh treatment of its Asian elephants. Ringling Bros. responded by launching a website for damage control, complete with propaganda video. Final arguments were finally presented in March of this year, but it’s still unclear how the case concluded.
Photo by Jennie Warren |via|
After the highly publicized birth of a female baby panda at a zoo in Bangkok, the people there have all-but-forgotten Thailand’s national symbol, the elephant. In a seriously misguided effort to bring some attention to the “neglected giants,” they were painted to look like pandas and mercilessly paraded about. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Or they could hire this guy, when he decorates an elephant it’s guaranteed to create a stir. |DailyMail|
Photo by Reuters
In Malawi, nine elephants were darted, drugged and trucked off to Majete Wildlife Reserve as part of a larger effort to avoid future conflicts between the animals and villagers. |Photo Journal|
Oxford University scientists, who may or may not have been high at the time, discovered a new way to thwart crop-raiding elephants in Kenya: beehive fences! The log beehives are strung together along a wire fence and when the elephants attempt to push past it, swarms of pissed-off bees are unleashed, causing the massive mammals to retreat like little bitches. |ScienceDaily|
In India, the populace doesn’t just have to be vigilant about terrorist gunmen roaming their streets, but also have to look out for raging wild elephants. Watch as this elephant wreaks havoc, attacking cars like they were Westerners.
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