October 17, 2016

Three months on, Lasah the Elephant remains in Chains and Bondage

Three months on, Lasah the Elephant remains in Chains and Bondage

Lasah remains in chains at an amusement park despite months-long efforts to free him. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Back in July, as we reported on Clean Malaysia, the plight of Lasah caused widespread outrage. The 36-year-old elephant bull, an investigation by the animal rights group Friends of the Orangutans (FOTO) revealed, was kept in chains and bondage at the Langkawi Elephant Adventures amusement park. He was used for elephant rides for the benefit of tourists and forced into other commercial activities by his handlers. Worse: elephants are highly social animals, yet Lasah was kept all alone.

“After years of abuse and exploitation, Lasah was sent to Langkawi in March 2006 and has since been forced to give rides for hours in sweltering heat and humidity while at the mercy of his handler,” FOTO explained back then. “When not used for entertainment of tourists, Lasah is kept in brutal conditions behind public eyes, chained on all four legs,” it added. “This chaining method also breaks the Malaysian wildlife law.”

To make matters worse, all his life Lasah has been exploited and abused in one form or another. He was once forced to work in a logging camp; he was then forced to perform in entertainment shows; and he spent two decades of his life languishing in zoos.

A campaign by Friends of the Orangutans has brought widespread attention to the plight of Lasah. Photo Credit: FOTO

A campaign by Friends of the Orangutans has brought widespread attention to the plight of Lasah. Photo Credit: FOTO

FOTO’s campaign on his behalf has triggered an outpouring of support for the long-suffering pachyderm. To date, some 380,000 people from around Malaysia and the world have signed a petition that calls for Lasah to be transferred to the Kuala Gandah elephant sanctuary in Pahang so he could enjoy some well-earned retirement at last. Hundreds of people have written to high-ranking Malaysian officials, requesting them to intervene on Lasah’s behalf.

So three months on, how is Lasah doing? Not much better, sadly. He remains at Langkawi, where he continues to face abuse, FOTO says. “Our government needs to intervene and transfer Lasah to Kuala Gandah immediately,” explains FOTO’s director, Upreshpal Singh.

“The world is watching and waiting for Lasah to start a new life at Kuala Gandah,” he adds. “Not doing so will send the wrong message to animal lovers and conservationists everywhere about the priorities of welfare and conservation efforts in Malaysia.”

Agreed. Let’s free Lasah now, once and for all!

11 Comments so far

Jump into a conversation

  1. Mardzia

    Pls free this poor baby…..

  2. Sandra Nichols

    This is disgusting I am sick of the way these Asian country’s treat animals it HAS tone stopped

  3. Ben Tan

    Stop this cruelty at once!

  4. Denise

    We are going to start a twitter storm to see if we can help Lasah with more support. I think we need to spread the word more because I have found lots of people that have never heard of Lasah.

  5. This is so cruel and barbaric they don’t even care about the Elephants only the money they can make out of them it’s time it was stopped worldwide

  6. Denise

    Remember to tweet to the Environment Ministry [NRE]: http://ctt.ec/hf5Fc

  7. Denise

    Remember to tweet to the Environment Ministry [NRE]: http://ctt.ec/hf5Fc The petition reached 400,000 and has gone to the Governor of Malaysia please use link above and tweet daily to get Lasah to a sanctuary

  8. Camille Corner

    PLEASE STOP his suffering let him free at least his las years of life !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they cant defense or speak for themselves !!!!!!!!!!! We humans are their voice STOP EXPLOITING THEM STOP AT ONCE !!!

  9. Send him to sanctuary – I see he is chained up when not “in use”. Everyone knows through videos what it is like for an animal when it is finally free.

  10. Barbara Brueckner

    Free him now!

  11. Jovonneb

    I will never support any of these Asian countries again, whose government does nothing to stop animal abuse. Don’t ask for my help on anything!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.