5 animal attractions you should never participate in

21 Sep 2016

By Aaron Tan

Many of these so-called sanctuaries and animal attractions hold a dark secret of abuse and suffering. Uncover the disturbing truths behind these controversial attractions that will make you think twice about ever stepping into one again.

1. Tiger Temples — Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Image via Flickr

There’s nothing sacred about the Tiger Temples of Thailand. One look at the living conditions of these distraught cats and you know something’s up—chained down like prisoners, crammed into tiny cages.

That’s unacceptable.

Handlers beat and force the felines to hold fetching poses while tourist take Instagram-worthy pictures—but at what cost? Baby cubs aren’t spared from the torment either. In fact, the temple makes the most of its earnings by letting tourist bottle-fed the little ones over, and over, and over again till milk is spewing from their mouths.

Oh yeah, and all those ‘donations’ you contribute to the temple? They don’t go to their conservation either. Big surprise. While it’s closed now, we’d never know if one might just spring up once the outrage is forgotten and over. 

2. Dog Meat Festival — Yulin, China

Image via Flickr

Thousands of terrified canines are butchered and consumed each year during the horrific 10-day festival in Yulin. What makes the event even more controversial is that there are no legal dog farms or dog slaughterhouses in China. Yet, more than 10,000 dogs are killed each year.

Which begs the question… where did all the dogs come from?

Most have reportedly been kidnapped or stolen from their original owners, sparking further outrage from dog lovers and animal rights groups alike.

Long standing tradition or not, these pets are family, not food. And despite widespread criticism, the murder of man’s best friend continues to this day.

3. Dolphin shows — SeaWorld

Image via Flickr

At first glance, these friendly mammals may seem content with their living conditions. But a dolphin’s smile is its greatest deception.

Let’s face it, animals are not meant to be held in captivity.

Dolphins from the wild aren’t used to swimming within the confines of a tiny concrete tank. The stress causes them to suffer from incredible amounts of physical and behavioural problems, going so far as committing acts of self-mutilation.

Performing cheap tricks and jumps can also cause fatal injuries to the dolphins. The powerful documentary “The Cove” sheds some light on the plight of dolphins in captivity that every animal-lover should be aware of.

4. Bullfighting — Spain

Image via Flickr

Here’s what happens during a bullfight (and why it needs to be banned):

• Two days before the fight, bulls are severely tortured to weaken them for the event. Wet newspaper is stuffed into their ears; vaseline is rubbed into their eyes to blur their vision; cotton is stuffed up their nostrils to restrict breathing; drugs are injected into them to slow them down; the list goes on…

• Picadors (men on horseback) stab the bull in the neck muscles with a pica (a long wooden spear with a blade tip) to further weaken the tormented animal

• After a long ordeal of attacks, the matador delivers the final degradation with the ‘moment of truth’, or ‘suerte suprema’, severing the aorta with one swift thrust of his sword, releasing the beast mercifully into death…

Well, not exactly… in most cases, the bull is often still alive. They’ve been wounded so badly that they can no longer stand and starts vomiting blood before having their ears and tails are cut off as prizes and dragged off to the slaughterhouse to be skinned. Even then, they may still be breathing…

5. Elephant Rides — Southeast Asia

Image via Flickr

Here’s the thing about wild elephants—they don’t like being ridden on.

In order for that to happen, baby elephants are subjected to a brutal taming process called Phajaan, or ‘the crush’, to completely ‘break their spirit’. The heinous act involves beating, burning, stabbing, and starving the poor animal into submission.

Even after they’ve been tamed, the tortured elephants are forced to work non-stop. Some even dying from exhaustion.

Some other grisly ‘celebrations’ include:

Goat Throwing Festival (Zamora, Spain)The title of this barbaric festival speaks for itself. Thankfully this absurdly cruel practice has since been banned, with festival-goers using an effigy of a stuffed goat instead for their goat-throwing purposes.

Artemisia Mountain Festival (Liuzhou, China)A bloody 500-year-old tradition of pitting two stallions against each other in a gladiator-style fight to the death. Savage.

It’s hard to believe such vicious spectacles still exist in today’s ‘civilised’ society. Being responsible travellers who are aware of such atrocities is the least we can do to help prevent more abuse towards our animal friends.

Read more »

4 beliefs about witchcraft in Asia

Mariam MohsenSeptember 13, 2016

Growing up, most of us have always been incredibly fascinated with witchcraft and the world of magic, be it the supernatural thrillers or the fantasies of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. 

The aspect of magic and rituals always brings a sense of mystery into the realm of reality that we live in, as evident by horror films such as the recently released “Blair Witch”.

The genre is one that story-writers and fimmakers continue to publish and produce. While some of their tales may be made up, the concept of magic and sorcery has always been around, as can be seen from some of the following beliefs still found in Asia.

1) Gong Tau, China and South East Asia

If you’ve ever heard someone say a person has “Tio Gong Tau”, it means that he or she might have been the victim of a supernatural attack.

Gong Tau is the term used in Hokkien, Teochew or Cantonese when someone is suspected of having been attacked by black magic, (called Jiang Tou in Mandarin), and is believed to be a fusion of poison skills which originated in Yunnan, China, and witchcraft seen in South East Asia.

Gong Tau is usually sought to either seek revenge, resolve relationship issues or even to assist with money problems.

It can be practiced in two different forms - non-spiritual or spiritual. 

Non-spiritual practices involve having magic potions mixed into the victim’s food or drinks for them to consume. Once the targeted victim either eats or drinks the poison, they enable the sorcerers to control them from afar.

The spiritual practices, on the other hand, require a Taoist sorcerer who can summon ghosts or spirits or even demons. These summoned entities are then sent to possess or harm or disturb the targeted victim. 

The catch is that the caster needs to have a couple of details at hand, such as the intended victim’s date of birth, or personal belongings, hair or even fingernails from the victim. According to practitioners, Gong Tau magic can be advanced by combining it with other rituals too.

2) Kulam, the Philippines

Kulam is a form of sorcery that can be found in the Philippines, centring around islands like Siquijor and Talalora.

The witches that practice this magic are called mangkukulam, and they are often feared by people due to their reputation. 

Kulam is heavily influenced by voodoo, which involves utilising a doll to target their victims. The witches also have to obtain a personal belonging of their victim for their magic to work. 

According to rumours, the more important the item is for the victim, the more powerful the magic will be. For maximum effect, hair, spit or even blood from the victim is supposedly ideal.

Once a witch has obtained the required items, he or she will tie a string around the doll and recite an incantation. This awakens the spirits and allows the witch to have full control over the victim. 

Witches then have the power of hurting their victims through the doll. It is suspected that the only method of getting away from this voodoo curse is by either removing the string from around the doll or by killing the witch.

There are also potions such as those seen in the picture, which are from the Siquijor. Some are used to create healing magic, so drinking the potion or rubbing it on one’s body supposedly eases physical pain. Others, such “love” potions, are meant to make the victim fall in love with someone.

3) Bomoh, Malaysia and Indonesia 

If you’ve grown up in South East Asia, you’ve probably heard the term “bomoh”.

Definied as a Malay shaman, the original role of a bomoh was to be a healer, an expert on the medicinal herbs that could be found in the region, as well as Malay geomancy. 

Bomohs were also known to enter cemeteries to summon spirits to aid them, as spirits have powers beyond a normal person, such as being able to heal or investigate supernatural events. 

Supposedly, the bomoh has to make a deal with a spirit before it will follow through with his request. Sometimes the bomoh will pick the spirit he wants, while sometimes the spirit will pick the bomoh. Some bomohs work with different spirits, others choose to work with the same one time and time again.

Bomohs will usually request spirits to either find a missing person, heal someone sick, or discover the reason bad events are happening to a victim.

In one of the more recent incidents, a Malaysian bomoh was seen performing rituals at Kuala Lumpur International Airport after the disappearance of flight MH370 (above).

4) Suangi, West PapuaIn the Indonesian province of West Papua, there is a belief that males in the society have the possibility of being possessed and becoming a cannibalistic witch.

An accused male is commonly called a suangi, and is rumoured to have a craving for eating the blood and organs of his chosen victims. 

After a suangi is done eating his victims’ insides, he will then stuff the body with grass and leaves. 

Supposedly, suangis believe that by consuming their victims this way they also manage to eat the victim’s soul, while the victim returns to his or her family in a zombified state.

If the family of the victim manages to track down the suangi that “ate” their family member, they will hunt him down and kill him (and sometimes eat him) with the belief that the soul of the victim will be released.

Read more »