Ahmedabad School Visited by Asia’s First Empathy-Building Animatronic Elephant, Voiced by Actor Dia Mirza, Courtesy of PETA India

For Immediate Release:

4 April 2024

Contact:

Anushka Yadav; [email protected]

Meenakshi Narang; [email protected]

Ahmedabad – Students at Udgam School for Children were treated to a special visit on Thursday from a stunningly realistic life-size mechanical elephant named Ellie, voiced by actor Dia Mirza, as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India launched an empathy-building tour of schools in Ahmedabad. Ellie will interact with thousands of local students, blinking her eyes and flapping her ears just like a real elephant as she tells children an age-appropriate story about the trauma of being separated from her mother as a baby, the abuse she endured in a circus, and finally, her happy life at a sanctuary after her rescue.

Photos and videos of Ellie from the launch event are available upon request.

“Mechanical elephant Ellie helped the children understand elephants are deeply intelligent, social, and emotional beings who belong in nature with their families, not in confinement, chained or beaten,” says Udgam School for Children Executive Director Manan Chokshi. “We were delighted to have Ellie in our school to sensitise our students about the importance of having empathy for animals.”

“Ellie the mechanical elephant helps children understand that members of other species feel pain, fear, joy, and love – just like us – and that they deserve to live out their days in peace,” says PETA India Senior Education Coordinator Meenakshi Narang. “PETA India encourages families to embrace animal-free activities that don’t exploit elephants and other living, feeling beings.”

Captive elephants used for entertainment are often abducted from their families and jungle homes, beaten into submission, and jabbed with ankuses – heavy batons with sharp steel tips – to control them through pain and fear. Many develop abnormal behaviour after years of strict confinement, and they are rarely given adequate food, water, or veterinary care.

Since May 2023, Ellie has reached almost 68,000 young learners at various private, public, international, and government schools across India, sharing the message that elephants should not be used in circuses or for rides or other cruel events. She’ll now be visiting thousands of students at Jamnabai Narsee School, Ananda Global School, Mahatma Gandhi International School, Little Millennium, Zebar School for Children, Riverside School, Calorx Olive International School, and many others in Ahmedabad.

PETA India also runs a free humane education programme, Compassionate Citizen, designed to help school students aged 8 to 12 years better understand and appreciate animals. It has been used by over 2 lakh schools and reached approximately 9.2 crore children across India.

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