A popular YouTuber is in hot water with his fans after posting controversial footage of himself riding elephants in Thailand on social media.
Jeff Wittek, an influencer and podcaster best known for his long career on YouTube, shared a video on Instagram of his recent trip to Thailand. It appeared to show him riding on an elephant's back and hanging on to a rope around the animal's neck while it tried to stand up.
Members of a fan page subreddit reposted screenshots from Wittek's video and discussed it.
"This is sad, it broke my heart seeing the clips of Jeff riding the elephant. It's well known that elephant tourism is extremely unethical and elephants are often beaten to submission and giving these people any money [will] just continue the abuse," the original poster wrote.
The majority of commenters agreed with that sentiment.
"That second picture is just awful. People need to stop platforming people like this," one user said.
"Disgusting to be this arrogant and entitled to do this to an animal," another added.
Wittek addressed the backlash in a follow-up Instagram post, but, unfortunately, he doubled down instead of apologizing. The second post included more pictures and videos of him standing on the elephant's back.
"To everyone pissed about my last post riding an elephant. Here's another one that's even worse. I respect and love animals, but do the math. This elephant weighs 4 tons, I'm 165 [pounds], that's like less than a backpack or a purse," he wrote in the caption.
Many of his followers were upset by the controversy and tried to educate him on how tourism activities involving wild animals are problematic and often abusive.
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Definitely 🙁 "Arrogant and childish," one user commented on his second post.
"Leave the poor thing alone," another said.
"His reaction to people educating him on this issue makes it so much worse," one user commented on Reddit. "He's acting like a petulant child instead of dealing with it like an adult and admitting fault."
Sadly, it's common to see pictures and videos on social media of tourists behaving foolishly and selfishly in nature. They are often shown trying to take photos of and engage with wildlife, putting themselves and the animals at risk.
Keeping your distance helps wild animals remain safe. Tourism involving wildlife, such as riding elephants, should be avoided. Animals in captivity are often treated poorly. If they ever injure a human, even if provoked, they can end up being euthanized.
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