Urge Without Walls International Church to STOP Elephant Rides

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BACKGROUND

In advance of the Republican National Convention, Without Walls International Church is offering elephant rides on its property throughout this weekend. We need your help to ensure that this cruel event is stopped immediately!

Elephants who are used for spectacles like this are barbarically trained behind the scenes so that they are under the constant threat of punishment and remain submissive in public. In video footage, trainers from one animal exhibitor can be seen forcing elephants to perform by shocking them with electric prods in the belly and genital area and striking them with bullhooks—sharp, metal-tipped weapons that resemble fireplace pokers and can leave painful welts, abscesses, and puncture wounds on elephants’ sensitive skin. In the video footage, a baby elephant cries out in pain each time he is hit on the head and jabbed in his sensitive mouth with a bullhook. This is standard industry practice for exhibitors who supply the elephants who are used for these types of promotional events.

The behind-the-scenes beatings continue throughout the elephants’ lives and leave the animals fearful and intimidated, allowing handlers to maintain control over them. Handlers are never without their bullhooks—tools that the elephants associate with pain and that remind them what will happen if they behave in a way the handler doesn’t like.

Please take a moment to write to Bishop Randy White at the Without Walls International Church and urge him to stop the elephant appearance.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Please click HERE for online webform


SUBJECT

Please Cancel Elephant Appearance Now


SAMPLE MESSAGE

I am writing to urge you not to support cruelty to animals by having an elephant appear at your church this weekend. Elephants provided by exhibitors for entertainment are beaten behind the scenes with sharp, metal-tipped weapons called “bullhooks” in order to keep the animals fearful in public. Elephants are sensitive, intelligent creatures who are not meant to entertain us.

Animals in this industry endure a lifetime of misery and are deprived of everything that is natural and important to them. Besides the blatant cruelty-to-animals issue, the use of elephants for entertainment events also poses serious threats to human safety. Dangerous incidents involving captive elephants have resulted in 15 human deaths and more than 135 injuries to humans since 1990. If elephants feel threatened by loud noises, sudden movements, or unfamiliar settings, there’s no stopping them when they go on a rampage.

Please cancel the elephant rides immediately.

elephants,
gentle in their largesse,
need to be safe
from manunkind
and his mess

Karen Lyons Kalmenson