Animals Deserve More
Throughout history, people have captured animals shipping them away from their families and their freedom. In recent news, China has taken young elephants away from their mothers in Zimbabwe with help from Zimbabwean officials. These young elephants are now being held captive in cages in China.
Cell phone footage has captured these people trapping young elephants in steel cells along concrete floors. Elephants were not made to live in these conditions. Would you like being locked up in a steel cell? The answer is simple, you wouldn't, so why should innocent animals be trapped in these cells? Junior, Allie Kennedy said, “I can't believe that it is legal to ship such young elephants in small compacted boxes only to be put behind steel bars in a concrete cell.”
In hopes of making money, Zimbabwean officials captured these highly intelligent and social animals in Hwange National Park. Now, these young elephants will be broken and put on display for tourists in China. When interviewing Allison Brown, she said, “It’s unbelievable that people think it is ok to capture animals and put them in small confined spaces that are much too small for their size.”
As many animal activists begin to protest and find out what these Zimbabwean officials have done, they are going to begin promoting a treaty governing international animal trade. By the end of the month, this treaty will attempt to halt all animal trade exporting live elephants from Zimbabwe and other countries that are located in South Africa. Many activists are stating their fear that the opaque trade will move to underground trade due to the treaty in place. Junior, Luke Yandall said, “It is important for activists during times like these to fight against officials when they are doing unjust things.”
As these wranglers rounded up the elephants to be shipped to China, many witnesses watched their violent and abusive behavior to these innocent and young elephants. Witnesses have told CNN that the wranglers were grabbing as many elephants as they could that could survive without their mother’s milk. However, the elephants they captured needed to still be small enough to fit compactly in a freight box to be shipped to China.
Animals deserve the same rights as us humans deserve. This abusive captivity of elephants should have never been allowed in any place. Captivity is cruel. Animals deserve more and we have to protest against these abusive conditions animals are forced into. You have a voice, use it, and fight for what is right for these innocent animals.