Tax returns are no joke, and neither is cruelty to animals. So when H&R Block used a captive elephant in a new television ad, the public didn’t laugh.
Many elephants used for entertainment in Asia are stolen from their mothers as babies in the wild – an extremely traumatic experience for these social, family-oriented animals.
Others are born into captivity and spend their lives in chains when they’re not ‘working’. They are ‘trained’ through the constant threat of physical punishment with weapons such as bull hooks (sharp metal-tipped rods) and are beaten repeatedly until their spirits are broken and they comply.
PETA has provided H&R Block with information about this cruel industry, but so far, the company has refused to remove its ad from the airways.
We encourage all taxpayers who want companies to demonstrate integrity and ethics in all aspects of their business to take their custom to a company that doesn’t support elephant abuse.
Jason Bake, director of campaigns, PETA Australia
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
