Elephants
are smart, social, soulful creatures. But there are some
things they just should not do. For example:
unnatural, unhealthy tricks like headstands. In
a recent video posted to Twitter that's since gone
viral, someone is filming as a handler washes a captive
elephant. The animal leans forward onto its trunk and
head, moving into a headstand while a man sprays the
creature down with water. The people who posted the
Twitter video may have been impressed with the stunt. But luckily most
animal lovers on the internet know better — and they're
rightly outraged.
While an
elephant standing on its head might seem amusing at
first glance, it's an unnatural behavior that these
majestic beings do not display in the wild. That means
they've been forcibly taught to perform these unusual
tasks. And the way handlers train elephants is anything
but humane. Instead, they employ vicious,
horrific tactics like stabbing the animals with bull
hooks, or shocking them with cattle prods. The
video has since been removed from Twitter, but it was
online long enough for it to amass more than 300,000
views. And when a video like this goes viral, it means
more and more people could be lulled into believing such
cruel exploitation is normal. Twitter must
implement a stronger system to catch these videos before
they go viral! Sign the petition if
you
agree!
