Thousands of elephants in Asian tourist destinations work in riding and performance activities. The welfare evidence for these practices is damning, but genuine sanctuary alternatives offer a welfare-positive model.
Elephant tourism welfare encompasses the training methods used to make elephants amenable to human interaction and the ongoing welfare during working life. The phajaan - spirit breaking - process involves restraining young elephants, sleep deprivation, starvation and physical punishment to eliminate natural resistance to human control. Elephants that have undergone this process carry the psychological legacy throughout their lives. Working elephants carrying tourists develop chronic musculoskeletal problems. The behavioral abnormalities visible in working elephants - stereotypic swaying, abnormal repetitive behaviors - indicate chronic stress from inadequate behavioral opportunities and unresolved aversive training history. Genuine sanctuaries that allow natural behavior and use positive reinforcement for management procedures offer a welfare-superior model that is also commercially viable.