Guest guest Posted March 14, 2008 Report Share Posted March 14, 2008 Although we get many alerts due to much more harmful acts towards animals I know that many on this list will be particularly annoyed by the below ridiculous action by the (what I thought was) more enlightened Discovery Center in California, not to be believed! thanks, http://ga0.org/campaign/elephant_bubble/wg7u83g4om6x667? On March 18th, the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California, will feature a sensationalist stunt in which a " bubble artist " will attempt to set a record by enclosing an Asian elephant -- a member of a critically endangered species -- inside a giant soapy bubble. It's shameful that a science center would sanction the exploitation of an endangered species purely for entertainment. This is the same elephant, Tai, who was used in a controversial art show in Los Angeles in 2006, in which she was full-body painted to match a wallpaper background. Tai is rented out by Have Trunk Will Travel, a California-based business that exploits elephants for profit, and employs a coercive method of training that relies on negative reinforcement, physical punishment and use of the bullhook. Despite IDA's direct pleas and a letter signed by almost a dozen zoo professionals and scientists from around the world in opposition to the event, the Discovery Science Center is defending its decision to go ahead with the show. They've even claimed that the stunt will provide " enrichment " for Tai, a statement that clearly demonstrates the center lacks a fundamental understanding of elephant biology and behavior. Elephants are intensely complex and intelligent creatures who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Help us stop this ridiculous stunt that sends the wrong message about nature, animals, and endangered species. Please Take Action to tell the Discovery Science Center that displaying an abused elephant in a bubble as part of a publicity gimmick is wrong! If you have questions, please email zoos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2008 Report Share Posted March 14, 2008 Dear , Please find attached an article on 'elephant art' written by noted literary figure Germaine Greer. In Thailand, a researcher named Richard Lair promotes the idea that elephants should earn their keep by playing music and painting. I have attached that article too. Regards, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1974498,00.html In Thailand, 78 elephants are being taught to paint. Extinction seems a better option *Germaine Greer Monday December 18, 2006 The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>* Human beings have always had to relate to other animals. Even when the relationship was simply one of hunting and eating them, the emotions involved were complex; the animals we hunted we also deified. We drew their handsome effigies on the walls of the caves where we roasted their carcasses. We identified ourselves as people of this or that animal totem, called ourselves by animal names. We used animals as imaginary friends, kept white mice in our pockets at the same time as we poisoned their brothers and sisters with anticoagulants. Children on farms watched their pet lambs grow up and be shipped away to slaughter. Children sleeping in cold rooms on their own buried their faces in the furry tummy of a toy teddy bear while Australian children were given toy koalas covered with the fur of dead kangaroos. Little girls make pin-ups of fluffy kittens while little boys are spending their pocket money on live British crickets to feed to Australian bearded dragons. Through the millennia humans have been confused both about what they have in common with animals, and about what distinguishes humans from other animals. We have imagined that animals understood us, loved us even - and failed utterly to understand them. We have made snap judgments about their intelligence and discriminated between animal species on the basis of what is simply a prejudice. We have adored furry animals with big eyes and loathed scaly ones. We conscientiously misrepresent certain genera as sweet when they were intensely competitive, and fantasise that frightened animals are malevolent. Now, humans are beginning to suspect that just about everything we do to animals is wrong. There are still passionate disagreements: some of us think it is our duty to put out feeders for wild birds; others understand that doing so reduces wild species to the status of dependent scavengers and compromises their survival. And some remain confused, marching to protest against the use of animals for medical research while silently tolerating the cruelty deployed on a far huger scale by " pest " exterminators. Art can do what argument cannot. When an artist creates a whole race of badgered and bewildered animals, as Paula Rego did in the 1980s with a series of works in acrylic on paper, featuring dark-eyed and vaguely malignant girls doing things to goats and dogs, we are struck by an expressiveness beyond words in the animal bodies being forced to play a part in the fantasies of others. Other animals look on, inscrutably, as if judging events by their own entirely mysterious code. In Duas Meninas com Cão of 1987, a bat-winged fox watches from a distance as two big girls force a pair of gaudy knickers on to the kicking hind legs of a small grey dog. Is the animal being sexualised or infantilised? Or both? Or neither? This being art, there is no answer, but the power of the image endures. Animal art used to be a matter of paintings of magnificent animals portrayed in their glory. Every home had a print of elephants wheeling on the Serengeti plain, a tiger burning bright amid the trees, or wild horses cavorting on the prairie. Some of these were posed by stuffed animals in artificial light. Nowadays we expect genuine images of real creatures, a real moment trapped by megapixels; we go hunting with cameras rather than guns. Meanwhile, in Thailand, in a camp at Chiang Mai, 78 elephants are being trained by leading artists to paint on canvas. One of their works, entitled Cold Wind, Swirling Mist, Charming Lanna Number One, was sold in February 2005 for $39,000 (£20,000). The elephants paint what they have been taught to paint, in colours they are given. Intelligent as they are, they will never be able to portray for us what it is like to be one of the last generation of Thai elephants. One is reminded horribly of the French children's story, Babar the Elephant, in which Babar wears a green suit and learns to impose a version of the ancien regime on his animal kingdom. Extinction seems the better option. It is 10 years since Aboriginal artist Peggy Napangardi Jones began painting the figures she called simply " birds " . These two-legged figures have floppy top-knots and beaks like outsize noses, not human but not particularly avian either. Sometimes they look more like kangaroo rats than birds. Their linear outline, usually red, is filled with a single pure colour, poised on a field of another solid colour, which they often share with other similar bird shapes. These delightful paintings break my heart. It's not just that this prodigiously talented woman, much younger than I, is suffering kidney failure, or because her people have been alienated from their land and themselves. What hurts is that her bird figures are extraordinarily expressive and yet utterly unreadable. It is as if they know they and their reality are about to be extinguished. I bet you could find the same look in the eyes of the Thai elephants. *http://www.tatnews.org/emagazine/2116.asp*<http://www.tatnews.org/emagazine/211\ 6.asp> On the annual celebration of National Elephant Day on 13 March, it is fitting to remember the important, even pivotal, role which the Asian elephant has played in the unfolding of the modern Thai nation. Since time immemorial, the elephant has permeated the iconography and symbolism of not just Buddhism, but also of Brahmanism, which Thai Buddhism readily embraces. In warfare, elephants have played an important part, not just as the 'tanks' of the ancient battlefield but more spectacularly as the mounts of royal figures engaged in one-on-one duels, most notably individual combats fought against Burmese royals by King Ramkamhaeng, Queen Suriyothai, and King Naresuan. In culture, elephants permeate Thai literature and the visual arts, nearly always as beneficent figures. In economics, beyond playing an essential function in transporting goods and people, elephants logged all of the teak which indisputably earned much of the early foreign exchange which fuelled Thailand's industrialization and modernization. Having stated all of the above - the usual paeans of praise - it is also fitting on National Elephant Day to consider some daunting questions: What exactly are the problems facing Thai elephants in 2004? What is the future of the Thai elephant? As for elephants in the wild, Thailand still has about 1,500 Asian elephants. While these numbers are very low compared to the past, with good protection the population seems to have stabilised and the future is reasonably secure. With domesticated elephants what we find, as with so many other sectors of traditional Thai society, is a world turned upside down. Numbers of domesticated elephants have plummeted from perhaps 100,000 in 1850, when Thailand had about six million people, to approximately 2,700 domesticated elephants, today, when there are 64 million Thais. Whereas there used to be an elephant for about every 60 Thais, now there is only one elephant for every 23,000 Thais. (An even more staggering juxtaposition is that in 2002, Thailand hosted 10,800,000 foreign tourists - or about 4,000 tourists for every single elephant.) Beyond the diminished numbers, there has also been a huge change in the work which elephants do. Transporting goods and people has not been a major employer for over fifty years. Dragging logs has ceased to be a source of work since 1989 when the Thai government quite rightly and wisely banned logging. (A flurry of illegal logging which followed that ban has since been successfully curtailed, so even illicit dragging now employs but few elephants.) Talk about 'work' raises a very interesting question: Why, in these enlightened times, should elephants have to work at all? The answer is that keeping a single elephant demands exhaustive human care and supervision. Whereas a single person might be able to care for many tens, even hundreds, of cows or goats, for example, each elephant requires one and more often two full-time mahouts. Providing food, shade, and water for elephants is a demanding job. In turn, the mahouts, virtually all poor villagers, need to care for their families and thus the need for the elephants to do some work that generates money. One simple alternative to work often suggested would be to release all elephants back into the wild but the sad fact remains that while many domesticated elephants would probably survive quite well in nature, in Thailand (and throughout Asia) there is nowhere near enough safe, suitable habitat into which to release them. With the loss of virtually all traditional forms of work, tourism and cultural activities have emerged as the only viable legal jobs. Today Thailand has about 50 tourist camps of various sizes holding perhaps 1,400 elephants; in fact the numbers in commercial camps are probably higher since at any time some elephants are at home, allowing the animals and their owners to rest. Beyond the many elephants catering to foreign tourists, a sizable number of animals also partakes in purely Thai activities including religious processions, blessing new houses, and historical recreations at local festivals. Clearly, over half of Thailand's elephants, maybe even 70%, are engaged in tourism and culture. The major attraction of tourist camps is offering performances, usually quiet modest, and giving the tourists rides (including overnight treks in some places in the north). Visitors are always encouraged to buy food for the elephants, mostly bananas and sugarcane, and to many people the highlight of their visit is just the thrill of touching a real elephant. The entertainments provided have become more diversified and sophisticated in recent years. On the dark side, for the past 25 years or so elephants have panhandled the streets of Bangkok, selling trinkets and food, though thankfully several recent confiscations have shown that the authorities have finally cracked down hard. On the bright side, the first striking innovation came in 1998 when five elephants at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center were taught to paint pictures, paintings which many connoisseurs consider to be fine art. Elephant paintings sold at an auction at Christies in New York in 2000 raised over US$50,000 and featured in a favourite American television show, 60 Minutes. Today several other camps also produce paintings, including the Mae Sa camp and the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace and Royal Kraal. The Thai Elephant Conservation Center has given birth to an even more startling invention, the Thai Elephant Orchestra, the world's first animal musicians dedicated to making serious music. The orchestra's first CD gained great praise from critics and appeared in media as diverse as CBS Evening News, People magazine, New York Times, The Economist, and many others. Thai elephants have featured in major films, including Walt Disney's Operation *Dumbo Drop *and Oliver Stone's work in progress, *Alexander *. Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol's spectacular historical epic *The Legend of Suriyothai *has achieved worldwide acclaim and distribution. Numerous other events have captured international media attention including elephant-back weddings on Valentine's Day and the annual King's Cup elephant polo tournament in Hua Hin. The Thai elephant has clearly secured a prominent place on the world stage, but where do Thailand's elephants stand at home in 2004? Numbers are undoubtedly low but they are probably sustainable through captive breeding. Concrete actions continue to expand. Veterinary care has greatly improved and through the auspices of several NGOs and government agencies virtually all Thai elephants now receive world-class treatment, often for free. The National Elephant Institute has been founded by the Forest Industry Organization to serve as a centre for ideas and actions, including drafting a new national law. Further, many provinces and regions have established organizations to help their own local elephants. A leading NGO, the Royal Forest Department, and a commercial sponsor have joined forces to launch an innovative effort to employ privately-owned elephants in national parks, both in assisting patrolling and offering rides to visitors. Despite some teething problems, such cooperative ventures are ripe with promise. A lot of the controversy which surrounds the welfare and conservation of domesticated elephants, both in Thailand and internationally, centers around the unstated, underlying and highly emotive question: Should elephants be kept in captivity? Personally, I strongly feel that they should not; Asian elephants have never been bred selectively and thus both genetically and behaviourally, they are wild animals pure and simple. Having stated the theory, however, the fact remains that as a legacy of many centuries of both capture and breeding, Thailand has nearly 3,000 elephants in domesticity. Realistic solutions to the problems facing these animals can only come when people of good will, tolerant to the opinions of others, reflect on theory - conscience, if you like - but reject it when it contravenes common sense. Perhaps the most hopeful sign is that the Thai public, once blissfully unaware of the elephant's plight, is now highly motivated in helping to protect their beloved elephants. Most Thai elephant owners have always extended humane treatment, but now more than ever they are made aware that are caretakers for a national treasure, not just their own private property. While constant vigilance is called for, the future of the Asian elephant in Thailand is looking brighter. On 3/14/08, Weintraub <weintraub wrote: > > Although we get many alerts due to much more harmful acts towards > animals I know that many on this list will be particularly annoyed by the > below ridiculous action by the (what I thought was) more enlightened > Discovery Center in California, not to be believed! thanks, > > http://ga0.org/campaign/elephant_bubble/wg7u83g4om6x667? > > On March 18th, the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California, will > feature a sensationalist stunt in which a " bubble artist " will attempt to > set a record by enclosing an Asian elephant -- a member of a critically > endangered species -- inside a giant soapy bubble. It's shameful that a > science center would sanction the exploitation of an endangered species > purely for entertainment. > > This is the same elephant, Tai, who was used in a controversial art show > in Los Angeles in 2006, in which she was full-body painted to match a > wallpaper background. Tai is rented out by Have Trunk Will Travel, a > California-based business that exploits elephants for profit, and employs a > coercive method of training that relies on negative reinforcement, physical > punishment and use of the bullhook. > > Despite IDA's direct pleas and a letter signed by almost a dozen zoo > professionals and scientists from around the world in opposition to the > event, the Discovery Science Center is defending its decision to go ahead > with the show. They've even claimed that the stunt will provide " enrichment " > for Tai, a statement that clearly demonstrates the center lacks a > fundamental understanding of elephant biology and behavior. > > Elephants are intensely complex and intelligent creatures who deserve to > be treated with dignity and respect. Help us stop this ridiculous stunt that > sends the wrong message about nature, animals, and endangered species. > > Please Take Action to tell the Discovery Science Center that displaying an > abused elephant in a bubble as part of a publicity gimmick is wrong! > > If you have questions, please email zoos <zoos%40idausa.org>. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2008 Report Share Posted March 14, 2008 Hi , You do the man too much honour calling him a scientist. Lair probably means that the elephants need to earn HIM their keep. This place is a shame as national elephant CONSERVATION center but merely a national elephant ENTERTAINMENT centre! Edwin Wiek WFFT Thailand _____ aapn [aapn ] On Behalf Of Friday, 14 March, 2008 2:53 PM Weintraub Cc: aapn Re: (USA) shameful elephant " art " Dear , Please find attached an article on 'elephant art' written by noted literary figure Germaine Greer. In Thailand, a researcher named Richard Lair promotes the idea that elephants should earn their keep by playing music and painting. I have attached that article too. Regards, http://www.guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1974498,00.html> ...co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1974498,00.html In Thailand, 78 elephants are being taught to paint. Extinction seems a better option *Germaine Greer Monday December 18, 2006 The Guardian <http://www.guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/> .co.uk/>* Human beings have always had to relate to other animals. Even when the relationship was simply one of hunting and eating them, the emotions involved were complex; the animals we hunted we also deified. We drew their handsome effigies on the walls of the caves where we roasted their carcasses. We identified ourselves as people of this or that animal totem, called ourselves by animal names. We used animals as imaginary friends, kept white mice in our pockets at the same time as we poisoned their brothers and sisters with anticoagulants. Children on farms watched their pet lambs grow up and be shipped away to slaughter. Children sleeping in cold rooms on their own buried their faces in the furry tummy of a toy teddy bear while Australian children were given toy koalas covered with the fur of dead kangaroos. Little girls make pin-ups of fluffy kittens while little boys are spending their pocket money on live British crickets to feed to Australian bearded dragons. Through the millennia humans have been confused both about what they have in common with animals, and about what distinguishes humans from other animals. We have imagined that animals understood us, loved us even - and failed utterly to understand them. We have made snap judgments about their intelligence and discriminated between animal species on the basis of what is simply a prejudice. We have adored furry animals with big eyes and loathed scaly ones. We conscientiously misrepresent certain genera as sweet when they were intensely competitive, and fantasise that frightened animals are malevolent. Now, humans are beginning to suspect that just about everything we do to animals is wrong. There are still passionate disagreements: some of us think it is our duty to put out feeders for wild birds; others understand that doing so reduces wild species to the status of dependent scavengers and compromises their survival. And some remain confused, marching to protest against the use of animals for medical research while silently tolerating the cruelty deployed on a far huger scale by " pest " exterminators. Art can do what argument cannot. When an artist creates a whole race of badgered and bewildered animals, as Paula Rego did in the 1980s with a series of works in acrylic on paper, featuring dark-eyed and vaguely malignant girls doing things to goats and dogs, we are struck by an expressiveness beyond words in the animal bodies being forced to play a part in the fantasies of others. Other animals look on, inscrutably, as if judging events by their own entirely mysterious code. In Duas Meninas com Cão of 1987, a bat-winged fox watches from a distance as two big girls force a pair of gaudy knickers on to the kicking hind legs of a small grey dog. Is the animal being sexualised or infantilised? Or both? Or neither? This being art, there is no answer, but the power of the image endures. Animal art used to be a matter of paintings of magnificent animals portrayed in their glory. Every home had a print of elephants wheeling on the Serengeti plain, a tiger burning bright amid the trees, or wild horses cavorting on the prairie. Some of these were posed by stuffed animals in artificial light. Nowadays we expect genuine images of real creatures, a real moment trapped by megapixels; we go hunting with cameras rather than guns. Meanwhile, in Thailand, in a camp at Chiang Mai, 78 elephants are being trained by leading artists to paint on canvas. One of their works, entitled Cold Wind, Swirling Mist, Charming Lanna Number One, was sold in February 2005 for $39,000 (£20,000). The elephants paint what they have been taught to paint, in colours they are given. Intelligent as they are, they will never be able to portray for us what it is like to be one of the last generation of Thai elephants. One is reminded horribly of the French children's story, Babar the Elephant, in which Babar wears a green suit and learns to impose a version of the ancien regime on his animal kingdom. Extinction seems the better option. It is 10 years since Aboriginal artist Peggy Napangardi Jones began painting the figures she called simply " birds " . These two-legged figures have floppy top-knots and beaks like outsize noses, not human but not particularly avian either. Sometimes they look more like kangaroo rats than birds. Their linear outline, usually red, is filled with a single pure colour, poised on a field of another solid colour, which they often share with other similar bird shapes. These delightful paintings break my heart. It's not just that this prodigiously talented woman, much younger than I, is suffering kidney failure, or because her people have been alienated from their land and themselves. What hurts is that her bird figures are extraordinarily expressive and yet utterly unreadable. It is as if they know they and their reality are about to be extinguished. I bet you could find the same look in the eyes of the Thai elephants. *http://www.tatnews. <http://www.tatnews.org/emagazine/2116.asp*> org/emagazine/2116.asp*<http://www.tatnews. <http://www.tatnews.org/emagazine/2116.asp> org/emagazine/2116.asp> On the annual celebration of National Elephant Day on 13 March, it is fitting to remember the important, even pivotal, role which the Asian elephant has played in the unfolding of the modern Thai nation. Since time immemorial, the elephant has permeated the iconography and symbolism of not just Buddhism, but also of Brahmanism, which Thai Buddhism readily embraces. In warfare, elephants have played an important part, not just as the 'tanks' of the ancient battlefield but more spectacularly as the mounts of royal figures engaged in one-on-one duels, most notably individual combats fought against Burmese royals by King Ramkamhaeng, Queen Suriyothai, and King Naresuan. In culture, elephants permeate Thai literature and the visual arts, nearly always as beneficent figures. In economics, beyond playing an essential function in transporting goods and people, elephants logged all of the teak which indisputably earned much of the early foreign exchange which fuelled Thailand's industrialization and modernization. Having stated all of the above - the usual paeans of praise - it is also fitting on National Elephant Day to consider some daunting questions: What exactly are the problems facing Thai elephants in 2004? What is the future of the Thai elephant? As for elephants in the wild, Thailand still has about 1,500 Asian elephants. While these numbers are very low compared to the past, with good protection the population seems to have stabilised and the future is reasonably secure. With domesticated elephants what we find, as with so many other sectors of traditional Thai society, is a world turned upside down. Numbers of domesticated elephants have plummeted from perhaps 100,000 in 1850, when Thailand had about six million people, to approximately 2,700 domesticated elephants, today, when there are 64 million Thais. Whereas there used to be an elephant for about every 60 Thais, now there is only one elephant for every 23,000 Thais. (An even more staggering juxtaposition is that in 2002, Thailand hosted 10,800,000 foreign tourists - or about 4,000 tourists for every single elephant.) Beyond the diminished numbers, there has also been a huge change in the work which elephants do. Transporting goods and people has not been a major employer for over fifty years. Dragging logs has ceased to be a source of work since 1989 when the Thai government quite rightly and wisely banned logging. (A flurry of illegal logging which followed that ban has since been successfully curtailed, so even illicit dragging now employs but few elephants.) Talk about 'work' raises a very interesting question: Why, in these enlightened times, should elephants have to work at all? The answer is that keeping a single elephant demands exhaustive human care and supervision. Whereas a single person might be able to care for many tens, even hundreds, of cows or goats, for example, each elephant requires one and more often two full-time mahouts. Providing food, shade, and water for elephants is a demanding job. In turn, the mahouts, virtually all poor villagers, need to care for their families and thus the need for the elephants to do some work that generates money. One simple alternative to work often suggested would be to release all elephants back into the wild but the sad fact remains that while many domesticated elephants would probably survive quite well in nature, in Thailand (and throughout Asia) there is nowhere near enough safe, suitable habitat into which to release them. With the loss of virtually all traditional forms of work, tourism and cultural activities have emerged as the only viable legal jobs. Today Thailand has about 50 tourist camps of various sizes holding perhaps 1,400 elephants; in fact the numbers in commercial camps are probably higher since at any time some elephants are at home, allowing the animals and their owners to rest. Beyond the many elephants catering to foreign tourists, a sizable number of animals also partakes in purely Thai activities including religious processions, blessing new houses, and historical recreations at local festivals. Clearly, over half of Thailand's elephants, maybe even 70%, are engaged in tourism and culture. The major attraction of tourist camps is offering performances, usually quiet modest, and giving the tourists rides (including overnight treks in some places in the north). Visitors are always encouraged to buy food for the elephants, mostly bananas and sugarcane, and to many people the highlight of their visit is just the thrill of touching a real elephant. The entertainments provided have become more diversified and sophisticated in recent years. On the dark side, for the past 25 years or so elephants have panhandled the streets of Bangkok, selling trinkets and food, though thankfully several recent confiscations have shown that the authorities have finally cracked down hard. On the bright side, the first striking innovation came in 1998 when five elephants at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center were taught to paint pictures, paintings which many connoisseurs consider to be fine art. Elephant paintings sold at an auction at Christies in New York in 2000 raised over US$50,000 and featured in a favourite American television show, 60 Minutes. Today several other camps also produce paintings, including the Mae Sa camp and the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace and Royal Kraal. The Thai Elephant Conservation Center has given birth to an even more startling invention, the Thai Elephant Orchestra, the world's first animal musicians dedicated to making serious music. The orchestra's first CD gained great praise from critics and appeared in media as diverse as CBS Evening News, People magazine, New York Times, The Economist, and many others. Thai elephants have featured in major films, including Walt Disney's Operation *Dumbo Drop *and Oliver Stone's work in progress, *Alexander *. Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol's spectacular historical epic *The Legend of Suriyothai *has achieved worldwide acclaim and distribution. Numerous other events have captured international media attention including elephant-back weddings on Valentine's Day and the annual King's Cup elephant polo tournament in Hua Hin. The Thai elephant has clearly secured a prominent place on the world stage, but where do Thailand's elephants stand at home in 2004? Numbers are undoubtedly low but they are probably sustainable through captive breeding. Concrete actions continue to expand. Veterinary care has greatly improved and through the auspices of several NGOs and government agencies virtually all Thai elephants now receive world-class treatment, often for free. The National Elephant Institute has been founded by the Forest Industry Organization to serve as a centre for ideas and actions, including drafting a new national law. Further, many provinces and regions have established organizations to help their own local elephants. A leading NGO, the Royal Forest Department, and a commercial sponsor have joined forces to launch an innovative effort to employ privately-owned elephants in national parks, both in assisting patrolling and offering rides to visitors. Despite some teething problems, such cooperative ventures are ripe with promise. A lot of the controversy which surrounds the welfare and conservation of domesticated elephants, both in Thailand and internationally, centers around the unstated, underlying and highly emotive question: Should elephants be kept in captivity? Personally, I strongly feel that they should not; Asian elephants have never been bred selectively and thus both genetically and behaviourally, they are wild animals pure and simple. Having stated the theory, however, the fact remains that as a legacy of many centuries of both capture and breeding, Thailand has nearly 3,000 elephants in domesticity. Realistic solutions to the problems facing these animals can only come when people of good will, tolerant to the opinions of others, reflect on theory - conscience, if you like - but reject it when it contravenes common sense. Perhaps the most hopeful sign is that the Thai public, once blissfully unaware of the elephant's plight, is now highly motivated in helping to protect their beloved elephants. Most Thai elephant owners have always extended humane treatment, but now more than ever they are made aware that are caretakers for a national treasure, not just their own private property. While constant vigilance is called for, the future of the Asian elephant in Thailand is looking brighter. On 3/14/08, Weintraub <weintraub@ <weintraub%40comcast.net> comcast.net> wrote: > > Although we get many alerts due to much more harmful acts towards > animals I know that many on this list will be particularly annoyed by the > below ridiculous action by the (what I thought was) more enlightened > Discovery Center in California, not to be believed! thanks, > > http://ga0.org/ <http://ga0.org/campaign/elephant_bubble/wg7u83g4om6x667?> campaign/elephant_bubble/wg7u83g4om6x667? > > On March 18th, the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California, will > feature a sensationalist stunt in which a " bubble artist " will attempt to > set a record by enclosing an Asian elephant -- a member of a critically > endangered species -- inside a giant soapy bubble. It's shameful that a > science center would sanction the exploitation of an endangered species > purely for entertainment. > > This is the same elephant, Tai, who was used in a controversial art show > in Los Angeles in 2006, in which she was full-body painted to match a > wallpaper background. Tai is rented out by Have Trunk Will Travel, a > California-based business that exploits elephants for profit, and employs a > coercive method of training that relies on negative reinforcement, physical > punishment and use of the bullhook. > > Despite IDA's direct pleas and a letter signed by almost a dozen zoo > professionals and scientists from around the world in opposition to the > event, the Discovery Science Center is defending its decision to go ahead > with the show. They've even claimed that the stunt will provide " enrichment " > for Tai, a statement that clearly demonstrates the center lacks a > fundamental understanding of elephant biology and behavior. > > Elephants are intensely complex and intelligent creatures who deserve to > be treated with dignity and respect. Help us stop this ridiculous stunt that > sends the wrong message about nature, animals, and endangered species. > > Please Take Action to tell the Discovery Science Center that displaying an > abused elephant in a bubble as part of a publicity gimmick is wrong! > > If you have questions, please email zoos (AT) idausa (DOT) <zoos%40idausa.org> org <zoos%40idausa.org>. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2008 Report Share Posted March 14, 2008 Dear Edwin, Thank you for writing. I would tend to agree with you. Richard Lair was a close associate of Indian elephant expert Kisor Chaudhuri FRGS. Kisorda fell out with Lair when he saw some elephants playing music in Chiangmai on a visit to Thailand. Just a point to make, elephant polo is part of the same entertainment business you condemn. It may seem like a lesser threat, but I think not. Trust your work is progressing well. Good luck. Regards and best wishes, On 3/14/08, Edwin Wiek <edwin_wiek wrote: > > Hi , > > You do the man too much honour calling him a scientist. Lair probably > means that the elephants need to earn HIM their keep. This place is a shame > as national elephant CONSERVATION center but merely a national elephant > ENTERTAINMENT centre! > > > Edwin Wiek > WFFT Thailand > > ------------------------------ > ** aapn [aapn ] *On Behalf Of * > Ghosh > *Sent:* Friday, 14 March, 2008 2:53 PM > *To:* Weintraub > *Cc:* aapn > *Subject:* Re: (USA) shameful elephant " art " > > > > Dear , > Please find attached an article on 'elephant art' written > by noted literary figure Germaine Greer. In Thailand, a researcher named > Richard Lair promotes the idea that elephants should earn their keep by > playing music and painting. I have attached that article too. Regards, > > > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1974498,00.html In > Thailand, 78 elephants are being taught to paint. Extinction seems a > better > option > > *Germaine Greer > Monday December 18, 2006 > The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>* > > Human beings have always had to relate to other animals. Even when the > relationship was simply one of hunting and eating them, the emotions > involved were complex; the animals we hunted we also deified. We drew > their > handsome effigies on the walls of the caves where we roasted their > carcasses. We identified ourselves as people of this or that animal totem, > called ourselves by animal names. We used animals as imaginary friends, > kept > white mice in our pockets at the same time as we poisoned their brothers > and > sisters with anticoagulants. Children on farms watched their pet lambs > grow > up and be shipped away to slaughter. Children sleeping in cold rooms on > their own buried their faces in the furry tummy of a toy teddy bear while > Australian children were given toy koalas covered with the fur of dead > kangaroos. Little girls make pin-ups of fluffy kittens while little boys > are > spending their pocket money on live British crickets to feed to Australian > bearded dragons. > > Through the millennia humans have been confused both about what they have > in > common with animals, and about what distinguishes humans from other > animals. > We have imagined that animals understood us, loved us even - and failed > utterly to understand them. We have made snap judgments about their > intelligence and discriminated between animal species on the basis of what > is simply a prejudice. We have adored furry animals with big eyes and > loathed scaly ones. We conscientiously misrepresent certain genera as > sweet > when they were intensely competitive, and fantasise that frightened > animals > are malevolent. > > Now, humans are beginning to suspect that just about everything we do to > animals is wrong. There are still passionate disagreements: some of us > think > it is our duty to put out feeders for wild birds; others understand that > doing so reduces wild species to the status of dependent scavengers and > compromises their survival. And some remain confused, marching to protest > against the use of animals for medical research while silently tolerating > the cruelty deployed on a far huger scale by " pest " exterminators. > > Art can do what argument cannot. When an artist creates a whole race of > badgered and bewildered animals, as Paula Rego did in the 1980s with a > series of works in acrylic on paper, featuring dark-eyed and vaguely > malignant girls doing things to goats and dogs, we are struck by an > expressiveness beyond words in the animal bodies being forced to play a > part > in the fantasies of others. Other animals look on, inscrutably, as if > judging events by their own entirely mysterious code. In Duas Meninas com > Cão of 1987, a bat-winged fox watches from a distance as two big girls > force > a pair of gaudy knickers on to the kicking hind legs of a small grey dog. > Is > the animal being sexualised or infantilised? Or both? Or neither? This > being > art, there is no answer, but the power of the image endures. > > Animal art used to be a matter of paintings of magnificent animals > portrayed > in their glory. Every home had a print of elephants wheeling on the > Serengeti plain, a tiger burning bright amid the trees, or wild horses > cavorting on the prairie. Some of these were posed by stuffed animals in > artificial light. Nowadays we expect genuine images of real creatures, a > real moment trapped by megapixels; we go hunting with cameras rather than > guns. > > Meanwhile, in Thailand, in a camp at Chiang Mai, 78 elephants are being > trained by leading artists to paint on canvas. One of their works, > entitled > Cold Wind, Swirling Mist, Charming Lanna Number One, was sold in February > 2005 for $39,000 (£20,000). The elephants paint what they have been taught > to paint, in colours they are given. Intelligent as they are, they will > never be able to portray for us what it is like to be one of the last > generation of Thai elephants. One is reminded horribly of the French > children's story, Babar the Elephant, in which Babar wears a green suit > and > learns to impose a version of the ancien regime on his animal kingdom. > Extinction seems the better option. > > It is 10 years since Aboriginal artist Peggy Napangardi Jones began > painting > the figures she called simply " birds " . These two-legged figures have > floppy > top-knots and beaks like outsize noses, not human but not particularly > avian > either. Sometimes they look more like kangaroo rats than birds. Their > linear > outline, usually red, is filled with a single pure colour, poised on a > field > of another solid colour, which they often share with other similar bird > shapes. These delightful paintings break my heart. It's not just that this > prodigiously talented woman, much younger than I, is suffering kidney > failure, or because her people have been alienated from their land and > themselves. What hurts is that her bird figures are extraordinarily > expressive and yet utterly unreadable. It is as if they know they and > their > reality are about to be extinguished. I bet you could find the same look > in > the eyes of the Thai elephants. > > *http://www.tatnews.org/emagazine/2116.asp*< > http://www.tatnews.org/emagazine/2116.asp> > > On the annual celebration of National Elephant Day on 13 March, it is > fitting to remember the important, even pivotal, role which the Asian > elephant has played in the unfolding of the modern Thai nation. Since time > immemorial, the elephant has permeated the iconography and symbolism of > not > just Buddhism, but also of Brahmanism, which Thai Buddhism readily > embraces. > In warfare, elephants have played an important part, not just as the > 'tanks' > of the ancient battlefield but more spectacularly as the mounts of royal > figures engaged in one-on-one duels, most notably individual combats > fought > against Burmese royals by King Ramkamhaeng, Queen Suriyothai, and King > Naresuan. In culture, elephants permeate Thai literature and the visual > arts, nearly always as beneficent figures. In economics, beyond playing an > essential function in transporting goods and people, elephants logged all > of > the teak which indisputably earned much of the early foreign exchange > which > fuelled Thailand's industrialization and modernization. > > Having stated all of the above - the usual paeans of praise - it is also > fitting on National Elephant Day to consider some daunting questions: What > exactly are the problems facing Thai elephants in 2004? What is the future > of the Thai elephant? > > As for elephants in the wild, Thailand still has about 1,500 Asian > elephants. While these numbers are very low compared to the past, with > good > protection the population seems to have stabilised and the future is > reasonably secure. > > With domesticated elephants what we find, as with so many other sectors of > traditional Thai society, is a world turned upside down. Numbers of > domesticated elephants have plummeted from perhaps 100,000 in 1850, when > Thailand had about six million people, to approximately 2,700 domesticated > elephants, today, when there are 64 million Thais. Whereas there used to > be > an elephant for about every 60 Thais, now there is only one elephant for > every 23,000 Thais. (An even more staggering juxtaposition is that in > 2002, > Thailand hosted 10,800,000 foreign tourists - or about 4,000 tourists for > every single elephant.) > > Beyond the diminished numbers, there has also been a huge change in the > work > which elephants do. Transporting goods and people has not been a major > employer for over fifty years. Dragging logs has ceased to be a source of > work since 1989 when the Thai government quite rightly and wisely banned > logging. (A flurry of illegal logging which followed that ban has since > been > successfully curtailed, so even illicit dragging now employs but few > elephants.) > > Talk about 'work' raises a very interesting question: Why, in these > enlightened times, should elephants have to work at all? The answer is > that > keeping a single elephant demands exhaustive human care and supervision. > Whereas a single person might be able to care for many tens, even > hundreds, > of cows or goats, for example, each elephant requires one and more often > two > full-time mahouts. Providing food, shade, and water for elephants is a > demanding job. > > In turn, the mahouts, virtually all poor villagers, need to care for their > families and thus the need for the elephants to do some work that > generates > money. One simple alternative to work often suggested would be to release > all elephants back into the wild but the sad fact remains that while many > domesticated elephants would probably survive quite well in nature, in > Thailand (and throughout Asia) there is nowhere near enough safe, suitable > habitat into which to release them. > > With the loss of virtually all traditional forms of work, tourism and > cultural activities have emerged as the only viable legal jobs. Today > Thailand has about 50 tourist camps of various sizes holding perhaps 1,400 > elephants; in fact the numbers in commercial camps are probably higher > since > at any time some elephants are at home, allowing the animals and their > owners to rest. Beyond the many elephants catering to foreign tourists, a > sizable number of animals also partakes in purely Thai activities > including > religious processions, blessing new houses, and historical recreations at > local festivals. Clearly, over half of Thailand's elephants, maybe even > 70%, > are engaged in tourism and culture. > > The major attraction of tourist camps is offering performances, usually > quiet modest, and giving the tourists rides (including overnight treks in > some places in the north). Visitors are always encouraged to buy food for > the elephants, mostly bananas and sugarcane, and to many people the > highlight of their visit is just the thrill of touching a real elephant. > > The entertainments provided have become more diversified and sophisticated > in recent years. On the dark side, for the past 25 years or so elephants > have panhandled the streets of Bangkok, selling trinkets and food, though > thankfully several recent confiscations have shown that the authorities > have > finally cracked down hard. > > On the bright side, the first striking innovation came in 1998 when five > elephants at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center were taught to paint > pictures, paintings which many connoisseurs consider to be fine art. > Elephant paintings sold at an auction at Christies in New York in 2000 > raised over US$50,000 and featured in a favourite American television > show, > 60 Minutes. Today several other camps also produce paintings, including > the > Mae Sa camp and the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace and Royal Kraal. > > The Thai Elephant Conservation Center has given birth to an even more > startling invention, the Thai Elephant Orchestra, the world's first animal > musicians dedicated to making serious music. The orchestra's first CD > gained > great praise from critics and appeared in media as diverse as CBS Evening > News, People magazine, New York Times, The Economist, and many others. > > Thai elephants have featured in major films, including Walt Disney's > Operation *Dumbo Drop *and Oliver Stone's work in progress, *Alexander *. > Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol's spectacular historical epic *The Legend of > Suriyothai *has achieved worldwide acclaim and distribution. Numerous > other > events have captured international media attention including elephant-back > weddings on Valentine's Day and the annual King's Cup elephant polo > tournament in Hua Hin. > > The Thai elephant has clearly secured a prominent place on the world > stage, > but where do Thailand's elephants stand at home in 2004? Numbers are > undoubtedly low but they are probably sustainable through captive > breeding. > Concrete actions continue to expand. Veterinary care has greatly improved > and through the auspices of several NGOs and government agencies virtually > all Thai elephants now receive world-class treatment, often for free. The > National Elephant Institute has been founded by the Forest Industry > Organization to serve as a centre for ideas and actions, including > drafting > a new national law. Further, many provinces and regions have established > organizations to help their own local elephants. A leading NGO, the Royal > Forest Department, and a commercial sponsor have joined forces to launch > an > innovative effort to employ privately-owned elephants in national parks, > both in assisting patrolling and offering rides to visitors. Despite some > teething problems, such cooperative ventures are ripe with promise. > > A lot of the controversy which surrounds the welfare and conservation of > domesticated elephants, both in Thailand and internationally, centers > around > the unstated, underlying and highly emotive question: Should elephants be > kept in captivity? Personally, I strongly feel that they should not; Asian > elephants have never been bred selectively and thus both genetically and > behaviourally, they are wild animals pure and simple. Having stated the > theory, however, the fact remains that as a legacy of many centuries of > both > capture and breeding, Thailand has nearly 3,000 elephants in domesticity. > Realistic solutions to the problems facing these animals can only come > when > people of good will, tolerant to the opinions of others, reflect on theory > - > conscience, if you like - but reject it when it contravenes common sense. > > Perhaps the most hopeful sign is that the Thai public, once blissfully > unaware of the elephant's plight, is now highly motivated in helping to > protect their beloved elephants. Most Thai elephant owners have always > extended humane treatment, but now more than ever they are made aware that > are caretakers for a national treasure, not just their own private > property. > While constant vigilance is called for, the future of the Asian elephant > in > Thailand is looking brighter. > > On 3/14/08, Weintraub <weintraub<weintraub%40comcast.net>> > wrote: > > > > Although we get many alerts due to much more harmful acts towards > > animals I know that many on this list will be particularly annoyed by > the > > below ridiculous action by the (what I thought was) more enlightened > > Discovery Center in California, not to be believed! thanks, > > > > http://ga0.org/campaign/elephant_bubble/wg7u83g4om6x667? > > > > On March 18th, the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California, > will > > feature a sensationalist stunt in which a " bubble artist " will attempt > to > > set a record by enclosing an Asian elephant -- a member of a critically > > endangered species -- inside a giant soapy bubble. It's shameful that a > > science center would sanction the exploitation of an endangered species > > purely for entertainment. > > > > This is the same elephant, Tai, who was used in a controversial art show > > in Los Angeles in 2006, in which she was full-body painted to match a > > wallpaper background. Tai is rented out by Have Trunk Will Travel, a > > California-based business that exploits elephants for profit, and > employs a > > coercive method of training that relies on negative reinforcement, > physical > > punishment and use of the bullhook. > > > > Despite IDA's direct pleas and a letter signed by almost a dozen zoo > > professionals and scientists from around the world in opposition to the > > event, the Discovery Science Center is defending its decision to go > ahead > > with the show. They've even claimed that the stunt will provide > " enrichment " > > for Tai, a statement that clearly demonstrates the center lacks a > > fundamental understanding of elephant biology and behavior. > > > > Elephants are intensely complex and intelligent creatures who deserve to > > be treated with dignity and respect. Help us stop this ridiculous stunt > that > > sends the wrong message about nature, animals, and endangered species. > > > > Please Take Action to tell the Discovery Science Center that displaying > an > > abused elephant in a bubble as part of a publicity gimmick is wrong! > > > > If you have questions, please email zoos <zoos%40idausa.org><zoos%40idausa.org>. > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2008 Report Share Posted March 14, 2008 Let folks blow soap bubbles around an elephant & next thing you know they'll be doing it in the bathtub. There are some real atrocities being committed in the name of art out there, if anyone wants to address them. For example, Google on the name " Guillermo Habacuc Vargas. " If this guy could be confined to blowing soap bubbles around elephants, a few thousand Latin American activists would cheerfully buy him a one-way ticket to blow bubbles around a whole stampeding herd. -- Merritt Clifton Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE P.O. Box 960 Clinton, WA 98236 Telephone: 360-579-2505 Fax: 360-579-2575 E-mail: anmlpepl Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org [ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide, founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations. We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year; for free sample, send address.] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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