ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between elephant tourism and elephant psychosocial functioning. Elephant riding, trekking, and circus-type shows are popular tourist activities in Asia. However, the combination of a burgeoning tourist trade and traditions that rely on the "breaking" and domination of elephants has resulted in epidemic psychological and physical breakdown in Asian elephants. Humans and elephants in Asia have engaged in complex interactions for centuries; elephants have been used as labor, despised as agricultural pests, and worshipped as gods. As a result, the centuries-old tradition of using Asian elephants both within and outside Asia has culturally conditioned many people to view captivity of this species as normative, and to consider them "domesticated." Although human leisure activities can yield a great deal of elephant suffering, human attitudes and human–elephant interactions that are patterned on a pro-social secure attachment and the principles of sanctuary have the potential to both repair and prevent Asian elephant breakdown.
