(IN JP) ELephant expert opposes elephant transfer from India to Japan

[Guest guest]

Daily Yomiuri (letter by Ian Redmond)

 

 

*Shipping elephant calves to Japan makes no sense*

 

I am delighted to read that in Okinawa Prefecture, " Local people feel a

special attachment to elephants, " but am saddened that they plan to express

this feeling by spending \30 million to bring two elephant calves from India

(April 16, Page 19). How very 19th century!

 

A more appropriate and modern way to spend the reported sum might be for the

city of Okinawa to set up a twinning arrangement with one of India's

cash-strapped national parks, with video links so that elephant-lovers in

Japan could watch elephant families in their natural habitat.

 

The citizens of Okinawa would then be proudly contributing to the protection

of elephants (and thousands of other species) in India's biodiverse forests,

as well as creating employment in a developing country, rather than

perpetuating the idea that animals are only worth something when captured

and shipped across the world.

 

What then, I hear you ask, could be done with the new elephant enclosure

that cost Okinawa Zoo \160 million?

 

All over the world, there are abused elephants in bad zoos and circuses that

continue to be beaten, prodded and goaded into performing tasteless tricks

to make money for their owners. Why not use this new facility as a sanctuary

for elephants rescued from such terrible conditions? This would result in a

better life for a few captive elephants, and surely be a better way of

commemorating the sad fate of Okinawa's earlier elephants.

 

Ian Redmond

Bristol, England

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