Elephant owners in Thailand are protesting against plans to treat domesticated animals the same as those born in the wild. The government says it wants to close a loophole in the law. But owners object, arguing that the move might lead to privately-owned elephants being wrongly confiscated reports English CNTV.
An elephant can potentially earn its owner around 9500 THB a month (approximately 300 USD or 180 GBP as at November 2013 exchange rates) .
Elephants born in the wild are supposedly protected, and cannot be sold or made to work, but an increasing number are being poached, smuggled into the country and given false identification papers.
An increasing amount of elephants are also being poached and killed for their ivory. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust highlights that one elephants is killed every fifteen minutes for their ivory, and recently organized worldwide marches to highlight this important issue.
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has pledged to close the country’s ivory markets for good making them illegal under Thailand criminal law.
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Flickr photo credit: Averain
