Exclusive on AAPN: HOW THE Silliness of humans causes the suffering of others

[Guest guest]

The article below by Jigme Gaton, Advisor for Animal Nepal the leading

animal rights organisation of Nepal has been written exclusively for the

website: United against Elephant Polo >> http://www.stopelephantpolo.com.

One can also find it here:

http://www.freewebs.com/elephantpolo/traumavsentertainment.htm

 

Azam

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HOW THE Silliness of humans causes the suffering of others

 

*A short Rant on Elephant Polo and Other Silly Human Activities*

 

* by Jigme Gaton, Advisor for AnimalNEPAL*

 

When I first heard there was such a sport as elephant polo just a year back,

I was taken aback - being a participatory sports fanatic in my youth and

now just the armchair kind - the first question that came to mind was " how? "

And then " why!?! "

 

I played my fair share of hockey as a kid (which seems to be the cruder

north American version of the polo game) and I was still confused. How the

heck do you get something the size of TATA truck to play polo? I see lot's

of elephants here in Kathmandu, but it's always from the backside, stuck in

some motorbike jam behind the lumbering laborer, so it was hard for me to

conceive two teams of these slo-mo mammals zooming up and down a field as if

they were horses, or skaters, trying to score a goal. But after a bit of

reflection on this odd scene, of course I knew the answer to " how " .

Elephants are trained to play the sport just as they are trained to do any

other task for humans, by being bullied and manipulated, and in many cases

tortured.

 

When I first visited Chitwan National Park in Nepal, I was a guest at

well-known resort and literally forced by the host of the hotel to take an

elephant ride. Not wanting to offend, I mounted Limbu, who was the same age

as myself, 47, and born in September, so also a Virgo. I had never been that

close to an elephant and would have been very content to just feed him some

kibbles and stroke his proboscis, which reminded me of my own. I apologized

to Limbu for having to climb aboard the viewing contraption strapped to his

back, but I did, squeezing into a wooden basket filled with a half-dozen

tourists. My first thought once on his back was that when I turn 48, I hope

I am not walking the jungle carrying such an awkward load, as these days I

can barely lift a pencil. So off we went into the jungle - in search of wild

tiger.

 

Now *why* we were doing this I still do not understand. I did not want to

see a tiger up close in a jungle with a fruit basket of white meat atop an

old elephant. And if I were a tiger, the last thing I would like to see is

this silly configuration. Again, I apologized to Limbu for the stupidity of

humanity, as I am sure the last thing *he* wanted to do that morning was

track down a wild tiger. I'm no wildlife expert, but I don't think hunting

tigers with tourists on their backs, loaded only with 35mm Canons is

something an elephant would ever consider doing in the wild on a Sunday

morning. But of course elephants have been doing all kinds of crazy things

throughout the centuries, all to entertain human desire: female's mounting

each other in circus tents, old males carrying heavy loads of cargo over hot

busy city streets, and all ages of elephants parading around at weddings

dressed like dolls. And now we have polo, with elephants having to pretend

to be horses and playing in tournaments for the rich and famous. Sheesh!

 

The insanity of the situation would have made me laugh, but I got close

enough to see Limbu's scars from repeated beatings from his trainer, and to

note his battered feet and thighs from being made to crash through the

jungle balancing a boatload of humans, and then being punished by his

trainer for almost dumping us into a swamp when his leg gave out. At that

point he looked a lot older then 47, and his sad tired demeanor was very

depressing. However, one comrade in the tourist basket gave me a chuckle, a

typical American, when he commented, " To bad we didn't get to see anything. "

I asked, " What do you mean, anything " He replied, " You know, wildlife! " I

looked around the very wild jungle of Chitwan, it was wonderful, it was like

seeing *everything*, and I had to smile…otherwise I would have cried.

 

But back to this idea that people would actually organize a sporting event

(funded mostly by alcohol manufactures, and like the Sailing sport-industry,

hosted by a major watch manufacture); are we really to get out and cheer for

our favorite team of polo pachyderms chasing a polo ball, as in this year's

Kings Cup? Come on! That's just silly. In the year 2007, aren't we much

more grown up then that? Haven't we banned pit-bull and cock fights?

Haven't we gotten rid of bull-fighting? Aren't rodeo and circus ticket sales

way down? Well, sadly not. But all of these human activities do seem very

old-school and from a generation past, don't they? Today we seem to be more

content watching the *World's Stupidest Pet Tricks* on Star World and *The

Most Fabulous Animal Rescues* on Animal Planet, where our active

participation is with the remote control instead of any kind of wicket or

ball or out on a field of any kind. Heck, people are not even walking their

dog these days but hiring trainers instead, so why all of sudden this new

sport of Elephant Polo? Obviously this sport is not for mass participation,

but I hear it's a big hit at the gaming tables in Las Vegas.

 

The creation of this sport has to do with a simple formula: Humans are

urbanizing and deforesting the wild habitat of these magnificent mammals

faster then animal activists and environmentalists can scream alarm. Civil

unrest in rural areas (normally habituated by elephants) is on the rise

world-wide, meaning that conservation areas are becoming disrupted, if not

abandoned. In my own backyard of Nepal, the conflict here has turned our

parks into war zones, making for a very unhappy place for any being to live,

yet still they are organizing elephant polo as a last ditch effort to

attract tourists. The pressures of human population growth is also pushing

animals like elephants to the brink of insanity; just consider all the

recent news reports from India and Nepal re: the shooting of so-called " wild

killer bulls, " mostly adolescent teens who are " mad as hell and not gunna

take it anymore. " And our own anger over elephant poaching is also

contributing: as more and more elephants are being saved from the blade,

less and less ivory is being traded, meaning more and more elephants are

actually getting to live out their wonderful long lives. Well, at least that

sounds good you say. But where are they going to live? And what will they

be doing? Circus sales are down, temples are full to capacity, its cheaper

to run a Toyota these days to haul logs, and elephant rides in Chitwan have

all but stopped as there are no longer any tigers to chase. So why elephant

polo, and why now? Here is what I think: to give a new generation of

elephants with no place to go and nothing to do - a job! The age-old job of

amusing human masters and spinning off advertising dollars. It's just

another business to replace the lost ivory one. And as is always the case

with humans bent on business, something has to give.

 

In this case, it is the elephant that has to give. But they are not alone,

as our specie's practice of wildlife domestication has gotten us into some

very dire soup. Even man's best friend the dog is being executed in America

at the rate of 1 for every 100 U.S. citizens per year (and that number is

touted as an improvement over past years). A recent report cites that

rendered pets (pets given lethal injections and then disposed) from American

animal protection shelters are winding up as seafood chow on Chinese seafood

farms, and that's telling…it tells me that if we don't have room for (or

work for) our domesticated pets and polo players, sooner or later we will be

eating them. But it's really hard to imagine a rendered elephant destined

for a seafood farm, so for now, developing polo matches worldwide seems more

likely. Instead of doing the right thing - preserving dwindling habitats -

developing the elephant polo industry looks to be the winning and more

profitable ticket for those owning the refugee-elephant population.

Silliness is bordering on insanity. If we as a species can Google the

planet Mars and see a rock on the surface, can't we see that what we are

doing to elephants and so many other species of intelligent mammals like

ourselves is just plain *wrong*? You don't have to be rocket scientist for

this insight. You just have to look past the propaganda handed out by the

sales team.

 

As raving as I may seem, I encourage all to get involved with any group of

activists trying to " right the wrong " so to speak. It's not impossible. We

don't have to drink booze distributed by elephant polo sponsors or wear a

Cartier watch on our next dinner out. We can also let those sponsors know

that we won't be patronizing them ever again. We can also point out to our

children that elephants don't like to made to play polo, or chase tigers

with tourists on their backs, or that female elephants don't like to hump

one another at a public circus (well, better leave that point for the older

kids).

 

There are also many many websites popping up with more information, one

notable being

*http://www.stopelephantpolo.com/*<http://www.stopelephantpolo.com/>,

and you can voice your opinions on this online forum as well: *

animalnepal/*<animal\

nepal/>,

and there are dozens more groups online - just use Google to learn more

about the elephant polo industry, as well as to look for rocks on Mars.

 

 

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United against elephant polo

http://www.freewebs.com/elephantpolo