Bali Elephant Camp has been accused of starving more than a dozen elephants after being forced to close due to the pandemic.
Starving Elephants
The Bali Elephant Camp provides a variety of outdoor activities as well as elephant-related attractions such as elephant rides. When tourists stopped visiting as a result of the outbreak, the park was forced to stop receiving visitors and they tried to make ends meet.
They left the elephants in the camp to starve to death, their feet still shackled to posts in the ground. These massive beasts were skin and bones when they were discovered. Their skin has sagged at areas where there used to be healthy amounts of fat.
However, a Dutch veterinarian, Femke Den Haas, told Al Jazeera in May about the several malnourished elephants in Bali.
People are not permitted to view their bones because they're big creatures, but that's precisely what they were, according to Haas, who has worked in Indonesia for 20 years to protect wildlife.
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Government Intervention
The government had no choice but to intervene and provide supports. As a representative of Balai Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam Bali (BKSDA), the government agency in charge of regulating Sumatran elephant adoption programs at safari parks and zoos, Haas paid a visit to the camp.
According to Al Jazeera, several enterprises in Bali had failed as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, with small firms such as Bali Elephant Camp being particularly badly affected. When tourists stopped visiting, they were no longer able to cover operating expenditures, especially the cost of feeding the elephants.
The government had no choice but to provide food and energy for them. Neither the forestry department nor the BKSDA had responded to Al Jazeera's request for comment.
The camp also failed to compensate its staff for their efforts. Some stayed to try caring for the elephants, but they lacked the financial means to do so.
The government eventually intervened and gave the Bali Elephant Park a deadline to find a solution for its elephants. The elephants were seized and transported to nearby zoos when they failed to do so.
The Recovery
At this time, all of the elephants have recovered and regained their weight. Unfortunately, these poor elephants have endured a life of exploitation, and it does not appear like this will change anytime soon.
Even if they are no longer compelled to give people rides and receive better treatment, they will still have to live in confined enclosures, have their family groupings broken up, and have profit prevail over their well-being.
We can only hope that one day they will be able to live in a sanctuary with enough space and no noisy guests.
The Elephants are the world's largest land creatures, and they also have one of the most distinctive appearances. There is no other animal with a physique like theirs, with their long noses, or trunks; enormous, floppy ears; and wide, thick legs.
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