Odd News
‘Elephant massage’ attracts mixed reactions from public
A video of an elephant massaging a woman’s back went viral on social media recently with lots of mixed reactions from the public.
The video showed the woman lying on a low bed as the elephant used its trunk and legs to apply pressure on her back.
Though the footage is not new, – it went viral again after it resurfaced on Twitter, once more shining a spotlight on what some people described as “problematic practice.”
According to reports, using trained elephants to massage tourists had long been promoted as a fun activity in Thailand.
While the idea seemed terrifying to some, the elephants were said to have been trained from an early age and several visitors look upon elephant massages as a unique and harmless activity.
But an animal welfare organisation had expressed concerns about the practice because the elephants used for that type of entertainment had to undergo a “cruel training process.”
According to officials baby elephants are separated from their mothers at a very young age and subjected to brutal ‘training’ processes designed to make them submissive to humans.
“This elephant was obviously trained to pamper to amuse humans. I hate this kind of stuff. Elephants are not our servants. This is gross,” a twitter user said.
Nearly all elephants used for tourist entertainment activities like rides and circuses had to be trained to make them obedient.
Training, according to experts, could involve starving the animals, locking them in small cages or inflicting pain with bullhooks. — ndtv.com
Odd News
Message in bottle floats from Canada to Ireland in 13 years
A message in a bottle launched by visitors to Newfoundland’s Bell Island was found washed up on an Irish beach nearly 13 years later, after apparently crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Kate Gay said she was walking a Dingle Peninsula beach this week when she spotted the wine bottle with a sheet of paper inside.
Gay showed the bottle to members of Creative Ireland NeartnaMacharaí during a meeting at her house that evening, and they broke the bottle open.
The note, written by a couple named Brad and Anita, was dated Sept. 12, 2012. The letter described the couple’s day trip to Bell Island.
There was a phone number on the letter, but there was no answer when group members tried to call.
The Maharees Heritage and Conservation group posted photos of the bottleto social media on Monday, and within an hour group members were messaging with Anita.
Group member Martha Farrell said Anita reported that she and Brad had married in 2016 and are still together to this day. -upi.com
Odd News
Woman earns world record for collection of 15,485 egg cups
A Spanish woman who has been collecting egg cups for over 50 years earned a Guinness World Record when her collection was tallied at 15,485 items.
María José Fuster recruited two witnesses to help her tally her collection at a community center in her hometown of Campo, Spain.
Fuster’s collection includes multiple patterns, colors, designs and even novelty cups bearing the images of characters including Superman, Betty Boop and Garfield.
Fuster maintains two blogs related to her hobby — one to catalog each piece, and one to list the names of the people who have donated egg cups to her collection.
Some of her most prized egg cups, about 1,143 of them, are currently on display at a local museum.
-upi.com
