Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick on Rajasthan Elephant Polo

[Guest guest]

Message begins:

 

As someone who has always respected India's compassion for animals, it seems

inconceivable that the City of Jaipur still plays host to Elephant Polo, and

tries to fool the world that the Elephants enjoy it, despite hard evidence just

a short time ago that a Polo Playing Elephant in Sri Lanka went beserk, injuring

people and causing damage to a vehicle. Such anger can hardly signify

enjoyment. It signifies a revolt against cruelty and abuse, and it is now time

that all caring people also revolted against such cruelty and abuse.

 

Elephants are not designed to play polo and nor should they.

All who support this cruel activity contribute to the suffering of the

Elephants, who have already suffered enormously from the brutal training

techniques they endure which no sane person can call humane. I speak with

authority about what elephants like and dislike, for I know them well, having

hand-reared some 80 of their orphaned young, and rehabilitated them back where

they rightly belong - amongst their own kind, and certainly not being forced to

play Polo to entertain a public ignorant of the cruelty involved in getting an

elephant to this point. I am recognized as a World Authority on the subject of

what elephants like and dislike, having reared their orphaned young and worked

with elephants for the past 50 years studying behaviour in a wild situation as

well as acquiring an in-depth knowledge of the species through saving and

rearing their orphaned young and I can categorically tell the world that

Elephants should not be forced to play Polo.

 

 

 

Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick, DBE MBE MBS DVMS

 

UNEP 1992 Global Laureate

 

2000 BBC Lifetime Achievement Award