Riding elephants is a popular activity for tourists in Cambodia, but the recent death of an elephant, caused by working long hours carrying tourists in the heat, has given rise to a controversial public discussion.

In Southeast Asia, many elephants get sent to training agencies when they are little. Being abused or starved is not at all uncommon for these trained elephants. For some of the elephants whose job is to entertain tourists, there is never even an enforced break time.

Hundreds of thousands of elephants are currently living in these conditions throughout Southeast Asia; the elephant that sparked this controversy was not the first and sadly will not be the last. But its death has at least brought the public's attention to the plight of these poor creatures.