Another Side to the Story
Dear Ashley,
Hi from Karen and Ashley. We are glad that you have taken such a strong stand for the elephants' well being, but you have to remember that there is another side to this story. To answer your first question (Do the elephants deserve beatings?) no, of course not, but there are good reasons behind them. Elephants are massive creatures. One simply cannot politely tell an elephant to move over and expect it to mind. Have you ever ridden an elephant? They have incredibly thick hides, and do not feel things as other animals would. For example, if one were to train a horse, one would use a whip. An elephant could not care less whether or not you whipped it. On the other hand, beatings that would successfully train an elephant would probably kill a horse.
We have absolutely no idea what method of training is used on the
elephants you see at the circus.
We know of only one other way of training an elephant. It is the western way. The elephant is tied down to the ground by his trunk and his legs are secured. The trainer approaches him and in a brief manner of speaking, shows him that there is nothing to be afraid of. Before you jump to any conclusions, this method has both its up sides and down sides. While the training is less harsh, afterwards, the elephant receives less respect. In Asian areas, elephants are regarded as special, and above other animals. In India, are almost sacred. So, during training, they are better off in the west, but afterwards are better off in Asia.
Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, that was a very interesting concept, (about elephants learning to starve and beat people) but we don't find it to be very likely. We don't think that elephants have the mental capacity to learn to starve or beat a person. Perhaps they could trample a person, or charge into them, but they would be beaten and restrained right away. Yes, elephants do make good bulldozers. We're afraid we've given you the wrong impression. The elephants aren't beaten once they are trained. That pick axe you saw Leann holding was only for when the elephant did the wrong thing. It's like a cowboy's spurs or a jockey's whip, or a cattle prod. Their skin is so thick and tough that they don't feel the axe as a human or a dog would. We have a rather humorous story to tell along these lines. A few years ago, before we moved here, the whole school went to the elephant farm on a trip much like the one we just went on. They got to feeding the elephants bananas and one little girl started teasing a baby elephant with one. The elephant naturally got angry, and decided to step on the little girl's foot. Our muscular big, bad principal (Mr. Jacoby) ran full speed into the elephant!!!!!!!!!!! The elephant, the baby elephant we might add, did not budge. Mr. J bounced off like a rubber ball!!!
P.S. Do you have a thing with question marks? We have a thing with exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
P.P.S. Have you ever lived in Jakarta?
P.P.P.S. Forgive us for the long-windedness.