Question: Have you ridden an elephant? If so, did you feel as if it was cruel and they were treated badly by their owners?

Ellen Williams answered on 16 Mar 2017:

I have never ridden an elephant no, and knowing what I know now I wouldn’t ride an elephant. In order to be ‘safe’ to ride elephants have to work closely with the mahouts. Elephants are obviously wild animals and the relationship with the mahouts is predominantly built on trust but also sometimes dominance. For the mahouts to dominate the elephants they sometimes have to use force (a bull hook or ankus) and elephants may be chained for long periods of time. That isn’t to say all mahouts treat their elephants badly it is just to say that some might and so i wouldn’t like to put into that ‘tourist trade’. I prefer to spend my time watching elephants do whatever they like to do 🙂