Heart-wrenching photos have emerged of an elephant that is so thin every rib is visible after years of being forced to parade in festival costume.
The 70-year-old elephant named Tikiiri worked beside 60 other elephants for the Perahera Festival in Sri Lanka despite her deteriorating health and frail body.
The 10-day festival features musicians, fire-breathers, dancers, jugglers, decorated animals, and more.
Heartbreaking photos of Tikiiri were shared by Save Elephant Foundation to mark World Elephant Day. The foundation wrote: “Tikiri joins in the parade early every evening until late at night every night for ten consecutive nights, amidst the noise, the fireworks, and smoke.
“She walks many kilometres every night so that people will feel blessed during the ceremony.”
Even though Tikiiri looked beautiful to people attending the festival because of her sparkly dress, her costume covers the heartbreaking truth.
“No one sees her bony body or her weakened condition, because of her costume. No one sees the tears in her eyes, injured by the bright lights that decorate her mask, no one sees her difficulty to step as her legs are short shackled while she walks.
“How can we call this [the festival] a blessing, or something holy, if we make other lives to suffer?”
The organization said that the elephant works for the ‘Tooth temple in Kandy city’ and urged people to ‘write to Prime Minister of Sri Lanka’ to end the cruelty.
“We cannot bring a peaceful world to the elephant if we still think that this image is acceptable,” the foundation added.
“To love, to do no harm, to follow a path of kindness and compassion, this is the Way of Buddha. It is time to follow.”
One person commented on the photo: “To have this beautiful creature treated and used in such a despicable way shows that humans really do think they are the superior race… This has got to stop and I for one will write to the Sri Lankan government.”
Another wrote: “This is beyond awful – I have tears in my eyes. This beautiful lady needs to a sanctuary to live out her remaining days. This breaks my heart.”
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