After a four-year pause brought about by PETA’s campaigning and widespread public outcry, the abusive elephant “games” at Nepal’s Chitwan Elephant Festival were brought back. Elephants used for "games," rides, shows, and other forms of entertainment are typically deprived of everything that's natural and important to them and suffer tremendously.
Elephants in Nepal Beaten With Bullhooks and Sticks for 'Games'
Footage from the 2024 festival shows one elephant, forced to play "games," being hit and jabbed over 64 times in just five minutes.
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For years, PETA has documented similar cruelty to elephants who are forced to participate in the cruel Chitwan Elephant Festival in Nepal being repeatedly struck and gouged with bullhooks—spear-like weapons with a sharp hook on one end—and their ears being violently yanked. Mahouts (handlers) also beat frightened elephants with other weapons, such as sticks and makeshift wooden knives.
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Elephants are highly social beings who thrive in matriarchal herds, protecting each other, caring for their babies, and traveling many kilometers a day. They experience joy, sadness, and fear. Their rituals of mourning the deaths of family members rival any that humans have developed. But throughout Nepal, baby elephants are routinely beaten and subjected to other egregiously cruel forms of "training." Their complex emotional states and multifaceted relationships are left in tatters.
Using these intelligent, endangered animals in silly spectacles is shameful. Nepal should be focused on protecting them in their natural habitats, not exploiting them for human amusement.
Please fill out the form below to tell the event organizers and supporters to cancel these cruel “games.”
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