i’ve written several times here and on the worldtour blog about the horrific abuse elephants endure to feed the tourist industry. there’s a video now making the rounds of the net showing elephants “painting”.

but please watch this one (the segment entitled “training crush”) or this one instead. this is how baby elephants are tamed in asia, so they can be trained to perform in the first place.

i’ll let my friend andy do the talking on this one.

This is not an example of an elephant expressing itself artistically — the drawing is of a side-view of an elephant, holding a giant flower, of all things. This is an example of an elephant trained (i.e. shouted at, frightened, and hit with sticks) until it could reproduce a sketch made by a human. Other elephants in the video appear to be trained to draw various other things on command. How natural.

Here’s a very credulous article from the Daily Mail about the elephant painting phenomenon:

The elephants are taught to paint by a special trainer, who teaches them to hold a brush with their trunks and copy certain objects, including flowers, trees, and even the Thai flag.

Experts believe that the elephants memorize the image which they can then ‘paint by rote’ over and over again.

…snip… The savannah is not festooned with ancient elephant paintings because, I repeat, elephants don’t draw.

many of these so-called “conservation” efforts train the elephants to paint, or give rides, in an effort to finance the upkeep of the elephants. unfortunately this creates a vicious cycle of demand in the elephant tourism industry.

please don’t support it. elephants do not exist to perform parlour tricks for our amusement. they’re wonderful enough just being elephants. if you want to support elephants without supporting cruelty, please donate here.

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