Yes, it's cruel... so is much which is done to animals in this country. But what can you do with the thousands of domesticated elephants which have no real function now that logging has been banned? You can't return them to the forests; they wouldn't know how to live. Not that I'm in any way condoning cruelty, or even lesser humiliations such as the various elephant shows (and the Surin Elephant Round-up) all round the country... but what on earth can be done with them?