"It is deeply tragic."

16. October had the elephant Kanakota had enough, when it stopped in the middle of today's third trip with tourists on their backs. The passengers were quickly whisked away from the seat on the elephant's back, as the elephant lay down, never to awaken again.

the Reaction on the elephant of death comes from Gitte Buchhave from the dyrebeskyttelsesorganisationen World Animal Protection.

"It was quite obvious that the young elephant, who was only 18 years old, had been running too hard and had been on too many trips with tourists," said Gitte Buchhave, when she was a guest in the B. T. Live on Tuesday. See the full interview at the top.

Here, she explained, in fact, there is talk about a growing problem with elephants who live in captivity and ill-treated in order to be used to entertain the tourists.

Therefore calls on the Gitte Buchhave all Danish tourists to immediately stop elephant riding, although it immediately may look quite innocent.

the Problem is that many tourists delete is not aware of what harsh methods, in order that Betxlarge it is possible to get an elephant to toe the line and be near the people, told Gitte Buchhave.

"the Elephant must be bent mentally at a young age. The methods fluctuate. But they always entail physical abuse, where elefantungerne beaten and often denied sleep. To the last pup is so degraded that people can control it."

But even though the elephant is broken, it still has its wild instincts intact. And as long as there is physical contact between the tourists and the elephant, is elefantføreren need to continually remind the elephant who decides.

It is done with a special elefantkrog, explained Gitte Buchhave.

She has even experienced, how such a hook is being used.

"It was shocking. I was in Thailand to visit some places where you can ride on elephants. There was an elephant, which was out on a walk with tourists on their backs. At the moment they were about to put themselves right on the elephant's back, shifted the balance from one foot to the other. So got him a blow in the head with the hook, because it had not got permission for it."

Gitte Buchhave hopes that her organization's work to better conditions for the animals to bear fruit.

"We are in contact with senior officials in some of the countries, which are willing to engage in a dialogue, so the problem does not escalate further."