In Reply to: JBR 4 - Safari Park posted by Pieter_n_Rhonda on Sunday, 21. September 2008 at 09:35 Bali Time:
Elephants can feel it and it's excruciatingly painful. A lot of people are unaware that an elephant can feel a mosquito bite.
In training an elephant both "Protected Contact" and the traditional "Free Contact" training is dangerous to the handler.
So training always involves some form of cruelty to the elpehant. The torture continues from time to time as a warning to the animal to behave the way we want them to. Even big zoos in Australia use the bull hook as a means of restraint.
I am including a link to some posts about abuse allegations in January of this year involving Melbourne Zoo where it is alleged an elephant handler used a bull hook. You may ( or may not ) be interested in reading it.
Pieter_n_Rhonda your instinctive feeling for what is not right is spot on :)