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I understand that, but I work with elephants at teh zoo here. The mahoot, if you watch closely, hit the elephant with the sharp end of the aspur, then the elephant jerked her head away, and the mahoot got dragged along with her head, the aspur was IN her face.
I don't care if they have thick skin or not, my real point was this:
The elephant grabbed Jeff, and swung him. Should punishment have been given, it should have been at THAT moment. She swung Jeff back, and dropped him, then pulled her head up and away. THEN the mahoot delivered punishment.
The elephant was successfully punished for letting Jeff go. What is she going to do the next time she grabs someone, having associated letting them go with being punished?
And moreover, any punishment should not have required shoving someone into the flesh of her face. Period. I've been training animals since I was 8, and never once have I ever needed to be physical, even when the animal was aggressive, and larger than me(As in the case of -many- horses I've worked with).
I know that elephants are much different than any animal I've trained before, but the same principals stand. That mahoot, in my own personal humble opinion, was way out of line with that shot. After Jeff was let go, there was no need to take any further action.
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