Have you ever seen a video of an elephant painting on social media? Recently, there are many videos trending on social media platforms such as Tik Tok that demonstrate the skills that elephants possess, allowing them to create art equivalent to that of a toddler. Elephants are known to have the largest brain of any land mammal and three times as many neurons as humans. Although they do not have fingers and oppsable thumbs like us humans, they have a long, flexible trunk that allows them to paint.
Although the skill to paint from an elephant is an amazing sight, it brings awareness to the potential animal cruelty that could be conducted to obtain their art. There are several zoos and organizations that have been reported to use animal cruelty. Specifically, a travelling elephant exhibit known as Have Will Trunk Travel was exposed for using bullhooks on elephants as a form of punishment. When bullhooks were banned in California, the organization moved to Texas where they could continue their work and renamed themselves as “The Perserve”. Constantly abusing elephants for entertainment caught up to them and in turn, two elephants died within months of each other. Tai and Dixie lived a life of torture and abuse for entertainment from completing tasks such as painting, handstands, and other tricks. Despite these tragic deaths, they still own three additional elephants that are continuing to still live this lifestyle until they have the same fate.
Achieving art at the expense of other life brings up moral questions about humanity. The purpose of organizations with animals is to educate the public about the importance of conservation and provide a quality life for the wildlife. For a rehabilitation center, they tend to animals with the ultimate goal of releasing back into the wild. In both cases, there is no necessity for physically forcing an animal to create art other than pure human entertainment. How can we support when an animal is forced to conduct actions that are not in their nature? As humans, we should question why we enjoy watching animals complete art at the expense of their life.
Animal cruelty outside of the cosmetics industry is a topic that needs much more discussion. People often believe that zoos are automatically helping wild animals, however that is not always the case. I appreciate that this article calls out zoos and other organizations for exploiting animals for the benefit of humans. The point of zoos should be to provide endangered animals with a place to survive and thrive, not completely domesticate them and use them for human entertainment. This reminds me of the more commonly recognized topic of animal abuse in circuses.