Elephant thought rescued by Sir Paul McCartney found beaten in chicken shack
India trip in 2012 prompted ex-Beatle to arrange for animal's freedom that never happened
On a trip to India in 2012, former Beatle
Sir Paul McCartney was moved enough by the sight of a 14-year-old elephant named
Sunder, abused by its handlers at Jyotiba Temple south of Mumbai, to engineer a
campaign for the animal's release.
McCartney made agreements with Maharashtra
State's forest department and Project Elephant, an Indian government
organization, to move Sunder to a sanctuary. But an animal rights group's
investigation in February found Sunder had simply been stuck in a chicken shack,
shackled in chains heavy enough to prevent him from lying down to sleep.
Even worse, the investigation by People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals captured video footage of the animal looking malnourished
and being beaten by its handler. The photos above, exclusive to Yahoo News, show
the elephant's condition, tightly chained and clearly not roaming free in a
sanctuary.
Sunder has also been seen "writhing in pain
and struggling to stand as the mahout (handler) strikes him repeatedly," said
PETA director of veterinary affairs, Dr. Manilal Valliyate. "Sunder visibly
recoils in fear from the weapon-wielding mahout, who continues to threaten him
with violence after he has stood."
Sunder, at 14 still a young elephant, was
no stranger to mistreatment. By the time the ex-Beatle found him, he had spent
six years at the temple in the city of Kolhapur. He was covered in scars and had
an eye injury and a hole in his ear. A local politician had donated the animal
to the temple.
Now, said PETA, Sunder is languishing with
no bedding in the shack, open on three sides to hot sun in the day, and cold
weather and winds at night.
Sunder's situation is ironic in a country
where an elephant-headed god, Ganesh, is worshipped by millions of Hindus, and
whose most famous social activist, Mohandas Gandhi, once said: "You can judge
the morality of a nation by the way the society treats its animals."
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