

A young girl looks at an eight-year-old female elephant named Saen Dao swimming and diving with its mahout (keeper) at Khao Kheow zoo (Photograph: Rungroj Yongrit/EPA)

Chonburi Zoo Attraction Forces Elephants to Swim Underwater for People

[dropcap]A[/dropcap] large news agency recently released a surprising video that seems to endorse a possibly abusive elephant attraction that opened late last year at Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo. One of the park’s most popular draws, the elephant swimming pool attracts scores of families and children who watch the underwater show from the comfort of an indoor theater.

WATCH | Thai Zoo Offers Front-Row View of Elephants Swimming

Opened late last year, the elephant swimming pool at Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo is one of the park’s most popular attractions. It’s one of only a handful of pools around the world which allow visitors to observe elephants underwater as they swim, and the zoo says it’s the largest facility of its kind in the world.

In the 49-second AFP clip, the elephant is forced to swim to the bottom of the pool six times as he is ridden and prodded by a mahout, who also pulls on his ears. On the other side of the barrier, children hit the glass and try to get the animal’s attention while hordes of parents film the sad event.

The elephant, meanwhile, seems for all the world like it’s simply trying to get back to the surface to breathe.

Apparently, 10 elephants live at the Chonburi zoo and the video says that they perform two swimming shows per day. The rest of their days are spent giving rides in the zoo’s “safari” exhibit.

While elephants can and do swim, even long distances, they swim with their trunks above water, using the appendage as a natural snorkel to help them breathe, according to Wild Animal Park.

At the Chonburi zoo, they are forced to dive below the water, submerging trunk and all. In a world where the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus put an end to its elephant show after more than 100 years of the practice and films like Blackfish have exposed the realities of what goes into forcing orcas to swim for our amusement, it’s hard to imagine the show witnessed in the video doesn’t present animal welfare issues that are hard to dismiss.

This article was originally published by Coconuts Bangkok. Read the original article.