PETA India Founder to be Chained in Animal Rights Day Appeal to End Elephant Slavery

For Immediate Release:

4 December 2018

Contact:

Radhika Suryavanshi; RadhikaS@petaindia.org

Garima Jain; GarimaJ@petaindia.org

Trio of Protesters Will Raise ‘Bloody’ Hands to Say, ‘Ban Elephant Rides’

Jaipur – Ahead of Animal Rights Day (December 10), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India founder Ingrid Newkirk and two volunteers will make an appeal for 2019 to mark the end of elephant rides. Already this year, five major steps towards this goal have been taken (see below). The trio will wear elephant masks, chains, and shackles and hold out the palms of their hands – painted blood-red – while holding placards that read, “End Elephant Slavery in 2019” and “Ban Elephant Rides.

When: Wednesday, 5 December, 12 noon sharp

Where: Outside Albert Hall Museum, Museum Road, Ram Niwas Garden, Kailash Puri, Adarsh Nagar, Jaipur 302 004

There have been five major victories for elephants in 2018:

1. TripAdvisor – the largest travel site in the world – as well as Expedia and more than a hundred travel companies and travel-book publishers ended promotions of captive-elephant attractions.

2. Tourism Minister KJ Alphons issued a letter to state tourism secretaries regarding concerns about cruelty to elephants used for tourist attractions.

3. Rajasthan’s former Principal Secretary for Tourism agreed to increase the number of charging stations for electric carts that would replace elephants and other animals used for rides.

4. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare directed the Government of Rajasthan to screen all elephants for tuberculosis after 10 out of the 91 elephants at Amer Fort tested reactive for it and to quarantine all those infected.

5. The Rajasthan High Court permitted PETA India to approach the Supreme Court in a matter about captive elephants that’s pending before the apex court.

“Kind tourists and tourist agencies worldwide have shown that they want animal slavery to be abolished. In just the last year, five major steps have been taken to help end elephant abuse, and now, we need one more jumbo step: a government decision to end all elephant enslavement,” says PETA India founder Ingrid Newkirk. “Beating and chaining elephants are indefensibly cruel actions that have no place in civilised society.”

A recent report by inspectors authorised by the government’s Animal Welfare Board of India found that the elephants being used for rides at Amer Fort included animals with a visual impairment or who tested reactive for tuberculosis, which is transmissible to humans. PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – notes that elephants used for rides are trained through violence and that while in nature, these animals travel as far as 50 kilometres per day, those in captivity often suffer from foot problems and arthritis because they’re chained on hard surfaces for long periods. Many also suffer from malnutrition or dehydration or die prematurely.

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