Story of an elephant with a distorted spine because of reckless tourist rides

It is reported that the elephant was forced to carry 6 tourists at a time. ” Pai Lin’s back still bears scars from the continuous tourism,” according to the foundation. “Constant pressure due to human rides deteriorates the tissue and bones on the backs of elephants, and that results in irreversible damage to their spines,” they noted.

The foundation further explained in a post that how round and raised Pai Lin’s spine should be, but is now left caved and sunken because of reckless load she had to bear in all those years.

Elephant rides are a common tourist activity in many Southeast Asian nations, but advocates claim the activity is cruel to elephants because they were not made to be ridden. They claim that the animals are frequently mistreated and exploited in other industries, such as logging and trekking, and that many of them physically labour themselves to death before passing away from exhaustion and malnutrition.

As per a report by World Animal Protection, India has around 3,000 captive elephants, and the majority of these offer joyrides in Rajasthan and Kerala only.

But on a positive note, Pai Lin arrived at this sanctuary in 2006 after she was given up by her previous owner. And now she lives at the sanctuary with 24 other rescued elephants. She is reported to be healthy now.

WWFT mentioned that they shared Pai Lin’s story to raise awareness about elephant cruelty and remind people never to ride them as tourism returned to the country following the COVID pandemic.

And the post already reached the masses, and people came out in support of the innocent animals being tortured repeatedly.