Writing style memo

Zhuotong Wu

Professor Amber Clontz

Writing 39A

08 November 2020

Consider the Animal Performances

The Surin Festival is an annual traditional festival in the northeastern of Thailand. This is a perfect illustration of a strong culture built by using elephants as a tourist attraction. Surin Festival was founded by Kuy, a local hunter who was training elephants as working animals. With the participation of more villagers, the first organized event takes place in 1960 to celebrate the mutual and healthy relationship between the indigenous people and the local elephants[footnoteRef:2]. Thailand was in the civil war at that time[footnoteRef:3], a walk along the dusty streets into their village you will notice this is a community that sunk into poverty. The poverty levels are worse before the domestication of elephants for tourist attraction. Most of the population was faced with pangs of hunger and poor sanitary conditions. The initiation of the festival in its contemporary form was in response to the steadily declined economy. However, the thinking about connecting elephants and the tourism industry has become a glimmer of light to help local residents shake off poverty. The elephants have been used to acquiring money from tourists and participate in the Surin Festival. Over the years, the elephants have been used to acquire money from tourists who frequently visit the place and participate in the Surin festival. [2: Murphy describes the conditions that led to the invention of the event that has gone on to gain worldwide fame.] [3: The time is civil war in Cambodia, so economic level in the entire country is bad. The value of elephants are declined.]

Over the years, the elephants have been used to acquire money from tourists like royal guests[footnoteRef:4], citizens from Thai, and tourists from overseas, they frequently visit the place and participate in the Surin festival. Additionally, it has been documented that before the tourists have attention to Surin festivals, Kuy people from this region have thrived from the elephant trade. The wild elephants were captured, tamed, and used as a means of transport. They transported logs until logging was outlawed in 1989. When logging declined, the number of elephants participating in the Surin festival increased drastically. More and more locals ventured into a new activity altogether, migrating with their elephants to the cities for entertainment purposes, and just like that, a boom in the elephant tourism industry was [footnoteRef:5]birthed. Comment by : Wallace describe how people deal with lobster in history, so I explained the relationships between elephants and local people and the reason their relationships had changes. [4: One famous visitors was Russian prince Nicholas II, who attended Surin Festival in 1891.] [5: A surprising fact is that approximately half of the 6000 remaining elephants in Thailand are under captivity for use in the tourism industry.]

The tourists are usually treated to excited elephant rides, trekking, and finally watching circus-like shows during the Surin Festival. It took about 5 days to prepare for the Surin Festival. The festival is two-day multi events that incorporate additional leisure activities such as playing polo and tugs of war. There are about 300 elephants in the city on the first day. The introduction of ritualistic activities such as traditional wears by the mahouts mythically believed to contain protective powers. There are performances to restore how Kuy people trained wild elephants in the Surin Festival. The elephants are not a kind of common animal to see everywhere out of Thailand, especially this is a great opportunity to have intimate contact with them. More and more tourists from overseas who have rarely seen elements in daily life travel to Thailand purposely to join Surin Festival. They always have great experience of ridding camps to interact with the elephants and watching elephants’ performances. The industry has flourished over the years, and the locals continue to gain benefits from the lucrative business. This is evidenced by the many tourists from overseas who enjoyed ridding camps to interact with the elephants and watching elephants performances for fun. Comment by : This is a depiction of what are doing in the Surin Festival, like how Wallace describe the events in the Lobster festival

Before we go further, let’s have a deeper understanding of elephants. Asian Elephant Specialists Groups (AsESG) introduces the elephants are considered as social creatures who live within family units in the wild. They also possess complicated emotional and incredible memories resulting from interactions with each other. Additionally, elephants also have high intelligence levels. The above traits are also shown by their tendency to console each other by coming close and soothing each other by their trunks and even mourning their relatives, suggesting that they are not so different from humans. Humane treatment of these creatures would go a long way to prove ethical values in people. Under the conservation act of 1992, the wild elephants are classified as protected animals. However, upon domestication, they are listed as commercial animals under the Beast of Burden act of 1939[footnoteRef:6]. This has been the loophole utilized by Thai to use them as a tourist attraction. Without the regulation of laws, there are needs someone to be elephants’ trainers[footnoteRef:7]. Therefore, mahouts[footnoteRef:8] became a popular career which is the tamer of the wild elephants. Comment by : I imitate Wallace to appeal ethos when I describe biological traits of elephants. My purpose is gaining trust from my audiences. Comment by : I imitate Wallace to describe some traits traits about elephants that audiences might don’t know. I am trying to tell them elephants have feelings like human step by step. [6: The beast of burden act is a law pertaining to elephants. It classified elephants as domestic animals hence allowing for their ownership as private property. This information is contained in Bansiddhi et al., 168] [7: Mahouts are poorly paid and overworked. Accompanied by their elephants, they are treated in a manner akin to slavery, as expressed by Baker et al., 20. The long hours spent daily entertaining tourists can result in fatigue and other health concerns for both elephants and mahouts hence the popularity of the term beasts of burden.] [8: Most Mahouts are untrained and unskilled immigrants that cannot do any other work. The work of a Mahout is considered low paying and demeaning hence is reserved for the most desperately poor people.]

Beyond the pleasurable rides and nostalgic shows in the Surin festival, there is an important moral consideration question. Should the locals’ poverty, which is the root of domestication of elephants for entertainment purposes, justify the horrible conditions and cruel training process the elephants are subjected to nurture them for the end product? This is because the industry is not tightly administered, and most tourists are not aware of the dark sides of the Surin Festival. Comment by : I state a question in a transition paragraph. I give space and time to allow my audience have own thinking before I start talking my opinion. My purpose is attract more attention from them.

Most tourists enjoyed a fantastic trip with elephants and have fun watching prepared performers made by elephants. Behind their laughing and happy time, we don’t know how painful the elephants stand in the process of training. Firstly, the elephants are separated from their mothers at a young age for training with total disregard for an appropriate nursing period. This violates their nature as they are considered very social beings and therefore require enough time to bond with their families. Moreover, the separation is in harsh conditions with limited meals and deprivation of sleep. These treatments go a long way to crush the baby elephants’ spirits, making them submit to humans. For a better elephant performance, some special training is performed that is painful and cruel. It is usual to take time for the elephants to learn and adapt to the teachings because elephants are not aware of what mahouts are teaching them. During elephant performance shows, the training uses wretched tools such as spiked chains and iron-tipped wooden sticks to force them into submission, therefore, hurting the elephants. Comment by : In “Consider the Lobster” Wallace describe a lot details of how people cooked the lobster. I imitate Wallace to describe how people maltreated elephants by using details. Comment by : This is another detail about how people abuse elephants during training process.

However, the mahouts claim to consider the elephants as family, so the fear-based training techniques as necessary to control the elephants. The horrific process doesn’t stop at the training level. The dancing elephants are forced to stand on their two front legs while performing magic in front of the audience. During ridings, their spines cannot also support excess weights of people, therefore, continuous carrying heavy weights cause gradual but permanent injuries to their spines. The chairs attached to elephants’ backs to ensure the riders’ comforts also rub their backs continuously and cause blisters. Even worse is that most elephants will have no chance to receive a well treatment. They are more like slaves for earning money. Comment by : This is details how people force elephants to dance, also I describe the bad results of they were injured.

It’s time to tell a real story about Dumbo, an elephant was visibly thin and Comment by : I imitate Wallace to connect relationships with audiences. He has great beginning sentence to transit paragraphs.

looked starved and danced in front of an enjoying audience at Phuket zoo[footnoteRef:9]. This young elephant had sallow eyes, and he looks very weak. After the performance, some heartbreaking audiences projections led to the rise online and ask zoo to retire him from the shows and moving him to the sanctuary. The Thai government was prompted to investigate the issue but Dumbo died when they just launched the process. Dumbo suffered from a digestive tract infection, additionally, he broke his legs while performing in his weak state. This story shows how the animals are neglected while in the zoos. Comment by : I imitate Wallace that appeal pathos by telling a real story. Wallace is good at describing how painful that lobster stands, so that audiences will have sympathy for them. I describe that Dumbo’ body is in serious situation, so that audiences will have more direct feeling about its painful. [9: As expressed by Baker et al, the story of Dumbo, told by Worwag et al., 8, also entails the same struggles that mahouts and their elephants go through. In Phuket zoo, Dumbo unfortunately died of starvation and exhaustion before any action could be taken to save its life.]

Why don’t we pause it right there, you might be curious about in light of all Comment by : I imitate Wallace about how to write transition sentence. There are two purposes of this sentence. One is motivate my audiences to engage into my questions. Another one is adding more interaction with my audiences.

these horrific events, why tourists are still gracing cultural events like the Surin festival. The main reason could be a lack of awareness. If everyone understands clearly that elephants are being maltreated, it’s highly unlikely that anyone would still be interested in participating in the rides. The debate about the ethics of watching elephant performances has been started. The stakeholders of the business, or mahouts defend that the elephants are relatively strong creatures, so they believe that elephants do not feel too much pain. This belief and act encourage people to continue hurting and maltreating. This ignorance about the pain and feeling of the animals leads to a decrease in the population of the elephants. Furthermore, they have also rubbished the idea that bull hooks confer a great deal of harm to the elephant because elephants have tough skin, therefore, the magnitude of damage is minimal.

However, the opposing asked people to have concerns based on the ethical point. As much as the elephant’s skin is thick, elephants have the cerebral cortex, which is the part of the brain involved in the emotional experience of pain, distress, and suffering. Having this in mind makes the belief that elephants don't feel pain or distress is a wrong perception. Elephant also feels pain and suffer just like human beings. Most elephant lovers and the people who appeal to the Ethical treatment of the animals feel very uncomfortable to watch elephants being tortured. However it is different in Thailand, elephants are symbolic of the country and Surin Festival was founded based on their traditions. Here elephants are used to entertain people more, so the tourist who provide revenue that helps improve the economy of the country. Therefore, an important moral consideration question is performed: what is the solution to help local people find a balance between treating elephants ethically and developing their tourism economy? Comment by : I imitate Wallace that emphasizes elephants have real feelings just like human. This is a second place that I state elephants have real feelings, because I am trying to remind my audiences when they are thinking connections between elephants’ feelings and money from local residents.

In order to prevent elephants from being cruelty and abuse in the process of training, the Asian Elephant Specialist Group 2017 explains that there is a need to change the management of elephants to a less intensive activity. The government should set laws on animal training to help regulate and control how trainers misuse the elephants and exposing them to pain. Moreover, there are needs of better and modern scientific methods to train elephants. There are some activities that have been proposed. The first one is the transfer of the domesticated elephants from the Beast of Burden Act’s protection and the Protection of Wildlife Act of 1992[footnoteRef:10]. This regulation asks owners to take care of elephants by following clearly guidelines. If any action is violated the guidelines, their permission of having elephants can be failed, and the elephant is taken care of by governments. The second regulation is the government providing free medicare to elephants so that minimizing the expenditure by the mahouts. Comment by : I imitate Wallace that appeal ethos to add credibility to my opinion. It will make my opinion stronger. [10: The Wildlife Act was given precedence over the Beasts of Burden act that aided the mistreatment of elephants. Explained by Taylor et al., this strictly regulated the ownership and use of elephants for economic purposes. These stringent rules and licenses helped reduce animal brutality significantly.]

Lastly, it’s government’s responsibility to express awareness and knowledge to everyone about the importance of protecting elephants and the meaning of ethical treatment of animals. Any animal, just like humans beings, deserve respect and care. However, when I recalled the image of elephants is dancing in the Surin Festival, I ignore a question is where the Surin people obtain their livelihood if the festival is canceled. Under the new regulations, most of them lose their job, which means they might lose the sole source of income for a family. On the ethical scale, one side is poverty people’s livelihoods, another is elephants’ life, which one stands weighty? There is no completely correct answer to ethical questions.

Wu 6

Works Cited

Atkins-Sayre, Wendy. “Articulating identity: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the animal/human divide.” Western Journal of Communication, vol. 74, no. 3, 19 May 2010, pp. 309-328.

Bansiddhi, Pakkanut, et al. "Changing trends in elephant camp management in northern Thailand and implications for welfare." PeerJ 6 (2018): e5996, Nov. 2018. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329154800_Changing_trends_in_elephant_camp_management_in_northern_Thailand_and_implications_for_welfare

Bansiddhi, Pakkanut, et al. “Elephant tourism in Thailand: A review of animal welfare practices and needs.” Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, vol. 23, no. 2, 28 Jan. 2019, pp. 164-177.

Coleman, Sam W., and John E. Moore. “Feed quality and animal performance.” Field Crops Research, vol. 84, no. 1-2, 2003, pp. 17-29.

Murphy, Kathryn. “Elephants in the Seleucid and Roman Armies, 350-150 BC.” The University of Auckland, 2017. https://www.academia.edu/34985794/ELEPHANTS_IN_THE_SELEUCID_AND_ROMAN_ARMIES_350_150_B_C

Taylor, Madyson, et al. “Becoming care-full: contextualizing moral development among captive elephant volunteer tourists to Thailand.” Journal of Ecotourism, vol. 19, no. 2, 23 Aug. 2019, pp. 113-131.

Worwag, Soraya, Peter Varga, and Laura Zizka. “Tourists’ Ethical Concern for Dumbo: Elephant Tourism in Thailand.” Journal of Travel, Tourism and Recreation, vol. 1, no. 2, 2019, pp. 17-27.