People have begun bashing 38-year-old Kim Kardashian West after the star shared pictures from her trip to Bali where she visited an alleged elephant sanctuary and rode on the massive mammals.
“Missing Bali and the amazing elephant sanctuary,” the media personality captioned her Instagram post in which she shared pictures from her trip.
As fans soon suggested, however, real elephant sanctuaries don’t let visitors ride on the animals, as in most cases the elephants get saved from cruel trainers who abuse them in the name of profit.
In addition to the riding, the people noticed a saddle and a thick rope around the elephant’s neck in one of the pictures. In another photo, the elephant’s trainer is seen sitting on the animal’s neck.
As if the riding wasn’t enough to upset social media users, Kim Kardashian was wearing a skimpy bikini that people believe to be disrespectful to the culture she attempted to experience.
“Kim I love you, but please research some of the issues with these so called sanctuaries!” one upset fan wrote in response to Kim’s post.
“So many people innocently visit these places without knowing how the animals are treated! Elephant Nature Park in Chang Mai is a well known ethical sanctuary.”
Another angry commenter added: “Is that a chair on the elephant?! If so, that’s not a sanctuary. Now that you’re studying law it would be great if you educated yourself on the animal cruelty that goes on in those places.
“The pain and abuse that those animals go through since babies. In a real sanctuary, you’re not allowed to ride the elephants.”
Kardashian was previously slammed for posting similar controversial photos on Instagram last year. Responding to an article written about the controversy surrounding Kim’s photos, Peter Egan wrote: “Such ignorance and such a lack of care.
Doesn’t she understand the cruelty inflicted on these poor elephants in order for her inane photo shoot.”
Defending her actions, Kim responded by saying: “We visited an elephant sanctuary that has rescued these elephants from Sumatra where they would have otherwise gone extinct. It is an organization that is working to save these beautiful animals. We did full research before going.”
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