14/03/2022
THIS ARTICLE BEGS THE QUESTION, WHEN DID JOURNALISTS STOP CARRYING OUT PROPER RESEARCH?
▪️ Holding any animal captive does not equate to domestication, nor is domestication dependent on the presence of the same species in the wild, the authors suggestion that this is the case is a ludicrous assertion. Most experts agree that to be domesticated, animals must have been selectively bred by humans for at least 12 generations, with offspring from each generation chosen for further breeding based on their desired traits, elephants have never undergone this process, therefore what you have is a wild elephant in captivity not a domesticated animal.
▪️ The author puts forward the usual argument that elephants in captivity are safer than those in the wild as though chained to a tree or wild are the only options! There is a middle ground, a middle ground largely ignored by the captive elephant lobby in Sri Lanka and wholly ignored by this author and that is GOOD WELFARE WITHIN THE CONFINES OF CAPTIVITY, allowing elephants the freedom to express their natural behaviors such as digging, dusting, scratching against trees, grazing and bathing (alone or with their own kind) but still within the confines of captivity, affording an elephant the five basic freedoms of good captive animal welfare. We suggest the author would do well to look these up, they are easily found as they are the premise on which all good captive settings function.
It’s by no means a perfect solution as captivity cannot provide fully for the natural behaviors of an elephant, yet a far preferable solution to a life in chains, for the elephant at least!
▪️ Another claim made by the author is that Nadungamuwe Raja and other captive elephants in Sri Lanka "can serve a bigger role as ambassadors of environmental conservation" we suggest that displaying elephants as mere objects of human entertainment does not persuade anyone to conserve elephants rather these actions put forward the notion that elephants are to be used and abused at the will of man and sadly, the annual number of elephant deaths at the hands of man in Sri Lanka supports our view! Were the authors view to hold weight then you would expect Sri Lanka to have the most cherished and protected population of wild elephants in the world yet tragically the opposite is true!
For any progress for elephants to be forthcoming in Sri Lanka we need REAL JOURNALISTS prepared to look at all sides of the debate not those who merely serve as mouthpieces for the captive elephant lobby and provide misinformation to support their own bias!
📰 https://island.lk/nadungamuwe-raja-a-prisoner-of.../...
THIS ARTICLE BEGS THE QUESTION, WHEN DID JOURNALISTS STOP CARRYING OUT PROPER RESEARCH?
▪️ Holding any animal captive does not equate to domestication, nor is domestication dependent on the presence of the same species in the wild, the authors suggestion that this is the case is a ludicrous assertion. Most experts agree that to be domesticated, animals must have been selectively bred by humans for at least 12 generations, with offspring from each generation chosen for further breeding based on their desired traits No elephant has ever undergone this process, therefore what you have is a wild elephant in captivity not a domesticated animal.
▪️ The author puts forward the usual argument that elephants in captivity are safer than those in the wild as though chained to a tree or wild are the only options! There is a middle ground, a middle ground largely ignored by the captive elephant lobby in Sri Lanka and wholly ignored by this author and that is GOOD WELFARE WITHIN THE CONFINES OF CAPTIVITY, allowing elephants the freedom to express their natural behaviors such as digging, dusting, scratching against trees, grazing and bathing (alone or with their own kind) but still within the confines of captivity, affording an elephant the five basic freedoms of good captive animal welfare. We suggest the author would do well to look these up, they are easily found as they are the premise on which all good captive settings function.
It’s by no means a perfect solution as captivity cannot provide fully for the natural behaviors of an elephant, yet a far preferable solution to a life in chains, for the elephant at least!
▪️ Another claim made by the author is that Nadungamuwe Raja and other captive elephants in Sri Lanka "can serve a bigger role as ambassadors of environmental conservation" we suggest that displaying elephants as mere objects of human entertainment does not persuade anyone to conserve elephants rather these actions put forward the notion that elephants are to be used and abused at the will of man and sadly, the annual number of elephant deaths at the hands of man in Sri Lanka supports our view! Were the authors view to hold weight then you would expect Sri Lanka to have the most cherished and protected population of wild elephants in the world yet tragically the opposite is true!
For any progress for elephants to be forthcoming in Sri Lanka we need REAL JOURNALISTS prepared to look at all sides of the debate not those who merely serve as mouthpieces for the captive elephant lobby and provide misinformation to support their own bias!
📰 https://island.lk/nadungamuwe-raja-a-prisoner-of-culture-an-ambassador-of-culture-or-rather-an-ambassador-of-conservation/?fbclid=IwAR1OETtP3RBFEkUP36HXxqKuhGg5KgmCyV2SqUjzlO447O_061GfUxLgI1o
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