Artist Who Made People Cry With Her ‘Good Boy’ And ‘Black Cat’ Comics Is Back, And This Time It’s About Elephants
Interview With Artist
German illustrator Jenny-Jinya is notorious for bringing her fans to tears. Her comic strips were dubbed tearjerkers as they showed just how cruel some people can be to animals. Jenny now has a whopping 285K followers on Instagram, proving that people aren’t immune to animal cruelty, abandonment, pollution, environmental hazards, and other hardships.
This time, Jenny is back with another heartbreaking strip which raises awareness of just how cruel and damaging elephant rides can be. It turns out, animals are taken from their families in the wild and forced to live in captivity where they’re constantly terrorized. Prepare some tissues at hand and take a look at the comic down below.
When you’re done with this post, check out the illustrator’s other powerful comics featuring a black cat, a duck, an albatross, and a lion.
More info: jenny-jinya.com | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Jenny has released a strip about an elephant working in a tourist ride, which raises awareness of animal cruelty
Image credits: Jenny Jinya
Bored Panda contacted Jenny to find out about the idea behind this particular elephant comic strip. It turns out, the illustrator came across a photo showing a captured baby elephant that moved her so deeply. “It was tied up and seemed to scream in pain when the so-called trainers hit the poor creature.”
Jenny is convinced that “if more tourists knew how elephants are tortured to make them submissive, perhaps fewer people would support these ’attractions.’” The artist said that after the release of this strip, she received tons of messages from people admitting they had ridden elephants in past. “They had no idea how these animals were ’trained,’“ she said.
Image credits: Jenny Jinya
Image credits: Jenny Jinya
Image credits: Jenny Jinya
Image credits: Jenny Jinya
Image credits: Jenny Jinya
Image credits: Jenny Jinya
Image credits: Jenny Jinya
Jenny confessed that the whole process of drawing such heartbreaking stories is quite saddening. “Conducting research about the issue in question is always depressing enough, but when I sketch out the storyboard, a few tears run down my cheeks, too,” she told Bored Panda.
There are many reasons why some people are so cruel to animals. Jenny says that “Some people think about profit, others are just poorly educated about certain topics, and some people might just have a crooked mentality.” But the artist believes that educating people, supporting shelters, signing petitions, and reducing the consumption of animal products go a long way.
Image credits: Jenny Jinya
According to World Animal Protection, people who want to ride elephants for entertainment have increased. This has escalated the number of elephants captured from the wild and kept in captivity by almost a third over the last five years, according to BBC.
In 2016, WAP inspected 3000 elephants living across Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and parts of India. They found that only 200 of them were living in acceptable captive conditions. Dr. Jan Schmidt-Burbach, global wildlife and veterinary adviser at World Animal Protection (WAP), told BBC: “We want tourists to know that many of these elephants are taken from their mothers as babies, forced to endure harsh training and suffer poor living conditions throughout their life.”
People shared their own views on elephant riding
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When I was about five, my mum and her friend took us, two girls, to a circus with animals. After the show we were offered rides on the elephants. The other girl, two years older, went on and enjoyed it. When the man tried to lift me up too, I went on a complete meltdown and curled under a seat. My mum was incredibly embarrassed and yelled at me for hours. I tried to explain that the elephant smelt terribly and had open wounds on the "saddle" (all that while screaming in fear and anger), but nothing. The fear and sadness of that animal is still engrained to my brain, 20 years later. Then, in late elementary school I was part of the animal rescue society, and we were given the task to present an important case of animal abuse to the school. I suggested circus animals and we settled on it.
I half-regret it, since we witnessed *horrifying* situations of chronically abused animals, like tigers and lions clawing at their cages until they tore out their nails and teeth, and elephants swaying from wall to wall endlessly. We even found MRIs done on rescued circus animals that showed wasted brain matter and patterns similar to human extreme abuse. However, the worst part wasnt the physical issues these animals face. At least to me, the scariest thing is that they were driven insane and self-destructed like humans. Thankfully, a couple of years later the EU banned circuses with animals, and goodriddense to them.
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when i was in sixth grade & reading the giver, the scene with the elephant poachers broke my heart. because the only news of poaching i had seen was preventive measures, i didn't know people still poached. when i found out, i had to stay home from school because i couldn't stop sobbing. elephants are such beautiful, gentle, intelligent creatures. i wish i could save them all.
I would save every animal from harm. None of them deserve that.
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When I was about five, my mum and her friend took us, two girls, to a circus with animals. After the show we were offered rides on the elephants. The other girl, two years older, went on and enjoyed it. When the man tried to lift me up too, I went on a complete meltdown and curled under a seat. My mum was incredibly embarrassed and yelled at me for hours. I tried to explain that the elephant smelt terribly and had open wounds on the "saddle" (all that while screaming in fear and anger), but nothing. The fear and sadness of that animal is still engrained to my brain, 20 years later. Then, in late elementary school I was part of the animal rescue society, and we were given the task to present an important case of animal abuse to the school. I suggested circus animals and we settled on it.
I half-regret it, since we witnessed *horrifying* situations of chronically abused animals, like tigers and lions clawing at their cages until they tore out their nails and teeth, and elephants swaying from wall to wall endlessly. We even found MRIs done on rescued circus animals that showed wasted brain matter and patterns similar to human extreme abuse. However, the worst part wasnt the physical issues these animals face. At least to me, the scariest thing is that they were driven insane and self-destructed like humans. Thankfully, a couple of years later the EU banned circuses with animals, and goodriddense to them.
Load More Replies... when i was in sixth grade & reading the giver, the scene with the elephant poachers broke my heart. because the only news of poaching i had seen was preventive measures, i didn't know people still poached. when i found out, i had to stay home from school because i couldn't stop sobbing. elephants are such beautiful, gentle, intelligent creatures. i wish i could save them all.
I would save every animal from harm. None of them deserve that.
Load More Replies...
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