Kahron Spearman
In an informative recent Twitter thread, writer and author Yashar Ali shows a woman doing pull-ups on the tusks of an elephant.
It would quickly lead down a rabbit hole of immoral and unethical handling of elephants and our relationship with animals in general.
“This is horrible. A South African woman named Emma Rogers went to an abusive, exploitative elephant park in SA called “Adventures with Elephants” and was allowed to do pull-ups on an elephant’s tusks,” he wrote, while posting the Instagram pages of Rogers (now deleted) and the park, which is about two hours from Pretoria.
Ali says that when Rogers turned into a wildlife Karen when “was called out on this abusive and exploitative behavior towards this elephant, she didn’t apologize or back down. She doubled down, saying that anyone shaming her is uneducated.”
Ali explains that the Hensman family owned the facility, who “ran a farming operation in Zimbabwe using elephants” until Robert Mugabe kicked them out. The family “moved everything to South Africa where they engage in the abuse and exploitation of elephants today.”
He also briefly explained the dangers of normalized (and inhumane) use of the bullhook, a rod outfitted with a metal-tipped hook, principally used to keep the elephants at specific distances and for discipline. The tools are also used to ‘break’ the elephant and make them obedient.
Even training for the riding of elephants is wildly problematic.
“Here’s something that tells you everything you need to know about Adventures with Elephants & the Hensman family,” Ali wrote, in closing of his post. “In @SeanHensman‘s Twitter bio, he has “Elephant trainer” That is disqualifying…it is inhumane to train elephants…there is NO humane way to train them.”