Kim Kardashian West criticised for posing with elephants at a 'sanctuary' in Bali

'This is abuse to elephants'

Kim Kardashian West has been called “cruel” after sharing photographs of herself posing with an elephant.

On Wednesday 1 May, the reality TV star shared a series of throwback photos on Instagram from a recent trip to Bali.

The first image shows Kardashian West touching the trunk of an elephant while a man, believed to be a sanctuary worker, sits on top of it.

The second photo shows the 38-year-old posing with her husband, Kanye West, while in the final image the elephant can be seen wrapping its trunk around the mother-of-three's body.

“Missing Bali! and the amazing elephant sanctuary”, Kardashian West captioned the post.

As idyllic as the pictures look, within hours of posting them the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star faced a fierce backlash from animal rights campaigners.

Since sharing, the post has amassed 35,000 comments, many of which come from angry followers who allege the photos weren’t taken in a sanctuary at all and accuse her of promoting animal cruelty.

“What kind of sanctuary let humans sit on the elephants?” one person commented.

Another wrote: “This is NOT an elephant sanctuary Kim please don't make this fashionable to millions of people it's just not right.”

While a third added: “So you support animal abuse too...*sigh* but are we even surprised at this point.”

Others pointed out it looked as though the man sitting on the elephant was holding a “bull hook” suggesting it couldn’t be a sanctuary,

“Except sanctuaries don't ride their animals cause it's cruel. Or tie them up with ropes?” one person commented.

Thousands of people have written near-identical responses, calling Kardashian West “disgraceful”, “gross” and “cruel”.

“Gross. It's not hard to do some research,” one person wrote.

The post has received such a negative response that people are now asking Kardashian West to remove it from her account.

One critic wrote, “Take this picture down, this is abuse to elephants!! How sad!! Oh bit [sic] wait, you think this makes you look so pretty huh??”

This isn’t the first time the reality star has been called out for visiting the elephant park.

In October 2018, the Kardashian family visited the same park during filming for their show.

During that trip, Kardashian West was pictured riding an elephant prompting a tirade on social media, with wildlife campaigners calling her actions “irresponsible”.

Kardashian West responded to the backlash on Twitter, writing: “We visited an elephant sanctuary that has rescued these elephants from Sumatra where they would have otherwise gone extinct.

“It is an organisation that is working to save these beautiful animals. We did full research before going.”

A representative from the animal rights organisation Peta has explained how riding elephants can have adverse effects.

“All over the world, tourist traps offer the chance to climb up on an elephant's back without divulging what these animals endure,” said Rachel Matthews, deputy director at PETA in the US.

“Baby elephants have their spirits broken through an egregiously cruel process in which still-nursing elephants are dragged from their mothers, immobilised, and gouged with bull hooks and nails.

“These horrific, ritualized training sessions often leave elephants severely injured and traumatized, and some do not survive. Riding elephants or visiting camps that force elephants to come into contact with humans directly supports these abuses.”