Kim Kardashian is being slammed on social media for promoting "animal abuse" after posting a photo of herself posing next to an elephant at a park in Bali.
"Missing Bali! and the amazing elephant sanctuary," the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" star captioned her photo on Instagram Tuesday,
But her followers were quick to point out that the "sanctuary" was in fact one of many elephant parks in Asia that offered tourists elephant rides, often under inhumane conditions.
Elephants are not supposed to be ridden and sanctuaries do not allow that practice.
"Beautiful?! Animals abuse is beautiful, WOW! Just WOW!!!," one of Kardashian's followers remarked on Instagram. "What’s beautiful about enslaving animals? This is a known tourist attraction. This is not a sanctuary," another stated.
The Dodo later confirmed that Kardashian was visiting a known elephant park in Bali that encouraged its visitors to partake in elephant encounters including rides through the jungle. While the circumstances under which the elephants are kept at this particular park are unknown, a recent study by World Animal Protection noted a rise of the number of elephants captured from the wild to be kept for entertainment at such parks in Asia.
In the survey of almost 3,000 elephants, more than three quarters were living in "severely cruel" conditions, BBC reported. It was discovered that many were bound in chains and forced to stand on concrete floors.
"The cruel trend of elephants used for rides and shows is growing — we want tourists to know that many of these elephants are taken from their mothers as babies, forced to endure harsh training and suffer poor living conditions throughout their life," noted Dr Jan Schmidt-Burbach, Global Wildlife and veterinary adviser at World Animal Protection. "There is an urgent need for tourist education and regulation of wildlife tourist attractions worldwide."
In a report, animal rights organization PETA described the conditions in which many of these elephants were living in.
"These animals are beaten into submission when young and then forced to let travelers take rides on their backs and to perform confusing and sometimes painful tricks, including walking on tightropes, balancing on two legs on a small drum, painting pictures, and dancing," the report said. "If tourists knew what elephants endured for their vacation photos, they would hit 'delete'— on both the pictures and the industry."
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