Photo taken in Indonesia where elephants are chained 24 hours a day unless they are carrying up to 3 adults in wooden saddles. Stolen from your mother. Carried away from the land you call home. The last specs of blue sky fade away, consumed by towering concrete walls colored in a mundane gray, sucking the very light from the sun. Spiked chains dig into your leg, sending blood trickling down to the ground. As if an earthquake suddenly shook the world, you stumble and fall in the crimson pool.
You scream for your mother, but no one comes. You long for the blue sky, but only gray can be found. You desperately search for light, but black clouds devour the sun. You lie in your own waste begging for coins as people stroll by, cackling as you writhe in pain. You long to graze on the green grass, but your handlers shove plastic and paper down your throat. You long to roam the spacious grasslands of India, but you are shackled to a post.
You scream for your mother, but no one comes. You long for the blue sky, but only gray can be found. You desperately search for light, but black clouds devour the sun. You lie in your own waste begging for coins as people stroll by, cackling as you writhe in pain. You long to graze on the green grass, but your handlers shove plastic and paper down your throat. You long to roam the spacious grasslands of India, but you are shackled to a post.
An elephant entertainment center where elephants remain chained or performing 7 days a week. 50 years pass since the day you were captured. Anger, agony, fear, and pain weigh you down like lead. Faint memories of your mother flash in the vast expanse of your mind. Green forests. Warm caresses. All gone. Now you are ferrying people across a concrete lot with chains devouring your leg. All for their amusement. A man sits proudly on your back and moans because it is too hot. A sharp pain ignites on your back as he presses his shoe against your skin, complaining that you are going too slow, complaining that the ride is too bumpy, complaining that your back is too rough.
You snort, irritated by his ignorance. He knows nothing about suffering, you grumble, kicking a loose pebble on the ground. Suffering is not feeling slight pains of hunger throughout the day. Suffering is not getting a bad grade on an essay you have to write. Suffering is not watching your favorite sports team lose. Suffering is not losing that Xbox at the mall to some slimeball lustily grabbing it from you on Black Friday.
Anger churns inside your mind until you feel like lashing out, destroying the humans hopelessly blind to your pain. Suffering is not merely being “subjected to something bad or unpleasant,” as the Oxford dictionary vaguely states. Suffering is enduring a living hell, not slight discomforts. But people think only of themselves. While they complain about the most stupid and petty of things, you are dying in a living hell, but they don't care. They never have.
Anger churns inside your mind until you feel like lashing out, destroying the humans hopelessly blind to your pain. Suffering is not merely being “subjected to something bad or unpleasant,” as the Oxford dictionary vaguely states. Suffering is enduring a living hell, not slight discomforts. But people think only of themselves. While they complain about the most stupid and petty of things, you are dying in a living hell, but they don't care. They never have.
This was an elephant at an entertainment center giving rides with large wooden "saddles" -- large enough to carry three adults. The elephants were chained like this 24 hours a day if they weren't being ridden. Since the creation of property, humans have been too consumed, too proud, and too selfish to see that others besides themselves are suffering. In the 1700s, slaves were plucked off the shores of Africa and forced to work on plantations in America, often separated from other family members. Children would be weeping without the warm caresses of their mothers. But did the slave owners care? No! After all, Africans weren't people. They were objects that provided income and wealth for a nation stockpiled with liberty and prosperity for all!
During World War II, some 200 years later, things hadn't changed much in the world. Hitler paraded around Europe capturing Jews, sending them to concentration camps where they were trapped between barbed fences, crying as their loved ones were executed. But no matter. Germany was suffering from depression and lack of living space, all because of the Jews! Those heathens probably deserved it anyway.
During World War II, some 200 years later, things hadn't changed much in the world. Hitler paraded around Europe capturing Jews, sending them to concentration camps where they were trapped between barbed fences, crying as their loved ones were executed. But no matter. Germany was suffering from depression and lack of living space, all because of the Jews! Those heathens probably deserved it anyway.
Raju had been working as a begging elephant in Allahabad. People would give the mahout tips in exchange for 'blessings' by Raju. Most of the food he got was inappropriate for an elephant. However, half starving, Raju would eat almost anything. Source: http://www.wildlifesos.org/blog/rajus-journey-freedom-photo-journal
Things still haven't changed. 50 years ago, poachers kidnapped you, shackled you in spiked chains, and forced you to parade people around the confines of your prison. As you reach the other side of your cell, your handlers lash you with a whip. The front of your head stings and a tear drops from your eye. The man demands that he be returned to the other side of the lot, less than a hundred feet away. You reluctantly oblige, bending your knees so they can easily step off and strut around. The spikes in the chains dig deeper into your skin, forcing drops of blood out until they careen helplessly to the concrete floor, staining it in a crimson red. Uttering another bitter moan, the people complain about how horrible the ride was and how miserable their lives are, passing by you as you bleed. It seemed as though all hope of escaping the clutches of Tartarus, of this awful prison, had disappeared.
THE RESCUE
Dr. Yaduraj works to remove his spiked chains. That night, you lay your head down on the muddy confines of your prison, still bleeding. Puss oozes out of your wounds. You hear a noise in the distance, coming closer. Silhouetted figures leap over the boundaries of your lonely, barren prison cell. Their faces poke out of the darkness, revealing expressions of pure anguish and horror. Their bodies slump down as you kick your bloody leg shackled to the post. Gentle hands reach out and caress you, just as your mother did. You glance back in shock; their touches send shivers running down your spine. They softly place succulent fruit into your mouth, the first real food in over 50 years.
Realizing all the suffering, all the bitter suffering, had finally come to an end, a shiver ran down your spine and you cried. You cried, Raju. You cried an elephant's tear, laden with all the suffering and pain building and building all those dreadful years, just waiting to come out. Now you are finally free. Your tears have awoken the world, Raju. We are realizing that animals, just like us, feel emotions and therefore endure suffering. How is it acceptable, then, to torture them, imprison them, and neglect them?
Realizing all the suffering, all the bitter suffering, had finally come to an end, a shiver ran down your spine and you cried. You cried, Raju. You cried an elephant's tear, laden with all the suffering and pain building and building all those dreadful years, just waiting to come out. Now you are finally free. Your tears have awoken the world, Raju. We are realizing that animals, just like us, feel emotions and therefore endure suffering. How is it acceptable, then, to torture them, imprison them, and neglect them?
Now that Raju is free, the process of 'healing' him begins. Here he takes a walk chain free holding a few bananas for a snack. source: http://www.wildlifesos.org/blog/rajus-journey-freedom-photo-journal
Suffering transcends ourselves, our families and friends, our nations, our races, and our species. It is time to break the inaccurate definition of suffering. When we toss it around, we do not think of an animal as sentient and intelligent like Raju, but of a human being tortured in prison. But what is the difference? Elephants have larger brains than humans and better memory capabilities, meaning that Raju remembers the traumatic moments of his capture and his mother (Allman Lab Research). He endured pain, agony, anger, abuse, hate, solitude, and rage for over 50 years. But now he is free. His suffering will not, and has not, gone in vain.
TRUE STORY
Raju is an Indian elephant captured very young over 50 years ago by poachers, who then sold him to a property in the Uttar Pradesh area of India. He was shackled in spiked chains twenty-four-seven, forced to beg for coins from visitors and could eat only the plastic and paper they gave him. He also had to parade people around the confines of his prison, still donning shackles. Finally, on July fourth, 2014, a team of wildlife vets and experts came to rescue him from dying in these horrid conditions. When they came and fed Raju the fruit, caressed him, and told him everything was alright, Raju cried knowing he was finally free. After displaying incredible will in trudging along despite his wounds, and once funds are raised, he will spend the rest of his days roaming the green fields of a sanctuary with an adopted family, also freed from terrible cruelty. His tears created an international outcry; people demand better treatment and protection of wildlife.
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