A gym owner has sparked outrage after she was pictured doing pull-ups on an elephant’s tusks at an elephant sanctuary.
Emma Roberts’ actions were named ‘absolutely abhorrent’ after the incident at Adventures with Elephants in South Africa’s Mabula District.
The trainer, who owns her own CrossFit gym, has defended herself, saying she does ‘not agree that sharing an amazing moment with this animal is cruel in any way’.
After spotting the incident on social media, one person claimed they ‘couldn’t believe’ what they were seeing.
They wrote: ‘Can’t believe she did that. She doesn’t have common sense and empathy. The elephant deserves to be treated with respect. Be kind to them.’
Another person on Twitter said: ‘This is horrible and breaks my heart. Thanks for calling attention to this.’
Someone else fumed: ’Can’t believe she did that. She doesn’t have common sense and empathy. The elephant deserves to be treated with respect. Be kind to them.’
Ms Roberts released a statement on her now-deleted Instagram page after the backlash.
She said: ’For the sake of this amazing facility I have opted to remove my post.
‘I do not agree that sharing an amazing moment with this animal is cruel in any way. However, there are many humans out there who only see the negative.
‘Beating elephants is cruel, riding them is not ideal, keeping them in horrible environments and killing them for their ivory is cruel.
‘Providing them with a home in their natural environment and educating people about how intelligent and wonderful they are is not cruelty.
‘Unfortunately only a small percentage of the world is enlightened enough to see this.
‘Those of you who have sent me wonderful messages, thank you.
‘Those of you who have made this amazing experience for me feel like something I should be ashamed of… Shame on you.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted Adventures with Elephants for comment.
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