Chitwan Elephant Festival to Face PETA Protest Over Beatings, Exploitation
Chitwan Elephant Festival to Face PETA Protest Over Beatings, Exploitation
What: Wearing giant elephant masks, a group of PETA supporters will converge outside the Nepal Tourism Board in Kathmandu to condemn the for cruelty and to call out the Rhino Lodge & Hotel and the Chitwan Riverside Resort for organizing the shameful event on behalf of the Regional Hotel Association Chitwan. PETA has exposed handlers at the festival—in which elephants are forced to race, give rides, and “play” polo and football—for repeatedly hitting and jabbing elephants with bullhooks (weapons that resemble a fireplace poker with a sharp hook on one end), sticks, and makeshift wooden knives. One elephant was beaten for nearly a minute, and many suffered from deep, bloody wounds around their heads and ears. When not being forced to perform during the festival, the elephants are used for rides by tourists visiting Chitwan.
“The Rhino Lodge & Hotel, the Chitwan Riverside Resort, and everyone else involved in this disgraceful spectacle has elephants’ blood on their hands,” says PETA Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA is calling on the Chitwan Elephant Festival to stop pummeling elephants for polo and instead embrace animal-free games that are fun for everyone.”
Where: In front of the Nepal Tourism Board office, Bhrikuti Mandap, Kathmandu
When: Friday, December 6, 11 am
An elephant being abused at the festival. Credit: PETA
Why: Elephants are highly intelligent and social animals who thrive in the company of their extended families. Births are joyous celebrations, and the deaths of loved ones are mourned. But elephants in captivity are deprived of everything natural and important to them and often exhibit obsessive, repetitive behaviours indicative of severe psychological distress.
More than a dozen companies—including Radisson, Hyatt, and Veena World, one of India’s top travel agencies—have pulled their support of the Chitwan Elephant Festival after hearing from PETA and its entities. PETA has written to President Ramchandra Paudel asking him to decline the invitation to be Chief Guest at the festival. The group has also sent letters to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, the Regional Hotel Association Chitwan, and the Nepal Tourism Board, urging them to intervene and shut down the festival’s exploitation of elephants.
PETA Asia—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA Asia’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
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