A 70-year-old elephant, named Tikiri, living in Sri Lanka, was forced to walk long distances every night so that people could feel the “blessing” at a traditional local festival.
According to Metro, the sickly elephant was so thin that from the outside you could see its ribs and spine clearly protruding through its sagging skin. But because the elephant is trained to participate in parades during the festival, no matter how “shabby” its appearance is, people still force it to go.
Tikiri is 70 years old so she is very slow.
The sickly elephant was so thin that even from the outside, one could see the ribs and spine clearly protruding through the sagging skin.
Lek Chailert, founder of the Elephant Protection Organization (also known as an elephant rescue organization in Thailand), said Tikiri the elephant was one of 60 elephants forced to work for 10 consecutive nights at the festival. Esala Perahera festival in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
This animal rights activist also said that to force the elephants to walk slowly through the crowd during the night parade, short shackles were placed on their legs.
Even though he is old and very weak, Tikiri still has to participate in parades every evening until late at night. Not just one night but 10 nights in a row, it kept walking amidst noise, fireworks and smoke. “The old elephant had to walk many kilometers every night so that everyone would feel lucky during the ceremony ,” Lek said.
Even though he is old and very weak, Tikiri still has to participate in parades every evening until late at night.
Lek also added that no one could see the elephant’s body being so skinny that it was just skin and bones or the extremely weak health condition of the elephant. And no one could see through the tears rolling down behind that colorfully decorated mask.
Lek’s organization has rescued many abused elephants in Thailand.
“How can we call this a blessing, or something sacred, if we make another living being suffer? Today is world elephant day (August 12). We cannot bring a peaceful world to elephants if we still think this image is acceptable ,” Lek declared.
