You have to remember, nobody asked the elephant if it wanted to be tamed or captured in the first place, no matter how much Stockholm Syndrome they may exhibit afterwards. And the elephant wrangler didn’t make friends with it out of some ideal platonic serendipity— the elephants are there to be exploited.
Sometimes, animal protection can be about leaving wild animals, and their habitats, the fuck alone.
Thanks for your patronizing, intentionally obtuse, ill-informed response that completely failed to address any of the salient points against keeping elephants as novelties for tourists to ride, which was not, as you characterized it, a “PETA-colored narrative”.
Hey, this is getting overboard for a light-hearted thread about historical ostrich racing. It’s also a hijack. If anyone feels the need to continue this discussion, DM me (or any mod) and I’ll move the relevant posts to their own thread. But please drop the discussion in this thread.