Video: Elephants Violently Beaten for ‘Benefit’ Polo Match

For Immediate Release:
9 March 2018

Contact:
Olivia Jordan +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 229; [email protected]

VIDEO: ELEPHANTS VIOLENTLY BEATEN FOR ‘BENEFIT’ POLO MATCH

Diageo-Owned Johnnie Walker, Peroni, and Other Sponsors Urged to Pull Support From Polo Tournament After Investigation Reveals Behind-the-Scenes Cruelty

London – In response to shocking video footage released today by PETA Asia showing handlers repeatedly beating elephants for Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort’s 2018 King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Bangkok, Thailand, PETA is calling on the event’s European sponsors – including Peroni, Aperol Spritz, Johnnie Walker, and San Pellegrino – to stop funding the cruel tournament, which touts itself as a charity event for elephants.

The footage, shot from nearby hotel and apartment windows, shows handlers in a holding area next to the polo grounds repeatedly beating and jabbing the captive elephants’ heads with bullhooks, weapons that resemble a fireplace poker with a long, sharp metal hook on one end, which they also used to pull the animals by their extremely sensitive ears.

“Beating elephants into ‘playing’ polo for public amusement while claiming to fund elephant conservation is a cruel scam, and the sponsors must pull out now,” says PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on companies sponsoring the tournament to stop putting their names on this abusive spectacle and never support events that exploit animals in the future.”

Elephants used for polo tournaments, rides, or any other type of entertainment endure violent training to break their spirits, during which they’re regularly beaten. Between matches, they’re often shackled so tightly that they can barely take a single step. Because of this cruelty, numerous tournaments have been cancelled or lost sponsors – and Guinness World Records has struck all mention of elephant polo records from its pages.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – also urges the Minor Hotel Group, which owns the Anantara brand and organised the event, to end the tournament.

The letters from PETA and its affiliates are available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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