Thursday, 26 July 2012
Paul McCartney breaks off Olympic rehearsals to plead for an elephant
They pulled the plug on him in Hyde Park but today Paul McCartney broke off from rehearsals for the Olympic opening ceremony – to plead for an elephant.
After hearing from pressure group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) about the plight of a young elephant who has been beaten and is kept in chains, Macca penned an urgent letter to Indian Forest Minister Dr Patangrao Shripatrao Kadam.
The former Beatle, who first visited India in 1966, called on the minister to use his power immediately to rescue the little elephant, named Sunder, from Jyotiba Temple in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra and move him to a forested sanctuary.
“I have seen photographs of young Sunder, the elephant kept alone in a shed at Jyotiba Temple and put in chains with spikes”, wrote McCartney. “Years of his life have been ruined by keeping him and abusing him in this way – and enough is enough.
“I most respectfully call on you … to get Sunder out.”
McCartney’s plea follows PETA’s discovery that Sunder was being abused by his handler, who has gone on the run.
The young elephant sustained a severe injury to his right eye from being jabbed with an ankus – a sharp, hooked metal poker-like weapon. The animal is confined spiked chains and kept alone inside a dark shed, in which he cannot even take a single step in any direction.
“Sunder is denied all that is natural and important to him, and lives in fear,” say PETA investigators.