The brilliant conservationist double-act Chris Packham and stepdaughter Megan McCubbin have thrown themselves behind a campaign to save elephants across Asia.
These wonderful animals are highly endangered yet many are captured in the wild and forced to spend a lifetime inside tourist "attractions" giving rides and performing circus tricks.
The campaign group Save The Asian Elephants, together with the Daily Mirror, is demanding a law that bans the promotion of these cruel tourist sites by British travel firms.
“I am hugely supportive of a change in the law, treating these animals in this way is cruel beyond belief, it’s something that should not be happening in 2020,” says Megan, who joins Chris on the new BBC2 Autumnwatch series that began on Tuesday.
“When we put our pounds in the pockets of people who are responsible for the direct torment of these animals it has a catastrophic impact, but if there’s no demand for it then it won’t happen.”
Chris adds: “I’m very much in favour of the ban, the UK should be setting a standard here. How can we justify letting these practices continue and effectively encourage them by promoting them to tourists?”
Tourist body ABTA advises its members against promoting unethical venues but there are no penalties for firms that ignore the guidelines.
Research by Save the Asian Elephants has shown that dozens of UK travel companies advertise some of the most notorious sites in India, Nepal and Thailand.
“We need legislation because big companies are helping to create the demand by advertising unethical elephant tourism,” says Megan.
“Of course everybody wants to see an elephant, it’s the way we do it that matters. If you see them in ethical venues, or better still in the wild, then that’s the most incredible experience.
“It’s when they can be ridden or perform tricks or you can take a selfie with one that it’s just not acceptable. When I see that I feel sick.”
Megan revealed that as a child she was taken on an elephant ride at a tiger park: “That’s what we did then because we didn’t know any better, and I carry a lot of guilt about it now.”
Unethical elephant tourism, she says, amounts to “funding the extinction of a species”.
“We are speeding that up and we’re doing it for a cheap photograph you can post on Instagram and get 50 likes for. Is that worth it?
"For me, that highlights the disconnect we have from the real world. Elephants are such important eco-engineers, they help protect and maintain the forests, and the forests have protect and maintain us, it's all connected.
“We need elephants not just because we love them and they’re such a charismatic species but because they are ecologically so important. We need to recognise that and respect them as intelligent, caring, social, amazing animals.
"I'm a really keen wildlife photographer but I wouldn't want to ruin a photo of an elephant by sticking my face in it.”
Chris is just as passionate about the mistreatment of elephants for what he brands “essentially the entertainment business”.
“Only last week I was looking at a picture of a British family on a beach in Malaysia posing with some elephants because unfortunately the message has not got through,” he said.
“Education takes a long time and there isn’t time to wait, we’ve got to make this mandatory, we’ve got to use legislation and prevent advertising from encouraging people to do this.
“It’s such a no-brainer that one wonders why there’s a struggle to get it done.”
Chris, 59, has been actively trying to conserve wildlife since 1970 and says that if you'd asked him in his youth is this sort of treatment would still be existing in 2020 he'd have said "certainly not".
"It's almost incomprehensible. This is the 21st century, we have achieved enormous things in science, technology, art and so forth, so why are we still treating animals with so little respect?
"We know elephants are long-lived social animals who put an enormous investment in parental care, they have fantastic memories and culture, communities that live together, the capacity to communicate over great distances with their own language. If we can't treat those animals with respect what hope is there for the woodlouse?"
Elephants used in Asian tourist attractions are caught as babies in the wild, and the mothers are often killed as they try to protect them.
They are then subjected to a prolonged period called “pajan” to make them submissive.
This involves beatings, confinement in tiny cages, isolation and deprivation of food and water.
Many do not survive and those that do are subjected to a live in captivity.
There’s hope that the campaign is moving in the right direction, according Save The Asian Elephants.
“We are in crucial discussions with government now, urging a new law to end the marketing and sale of holidays to Asian holiday venues where elephants are abused,” said founder Duncan McNair.
*Back To Nature: How To Love Life - And Save It by Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin is published by Two Roads next month.
