Mistreated elephants perform for tourists at a Thai zoo that animal rights campaigners are battling to close down. <br /><br />The animals were filmed at The Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo which sparked outrage last December when footage emerged of a painfully thin elephant being forced to perform tricks for crowds.<br /><br />Since then, animal rights groups including PETA have pressured tour companies to stop taking holidaymakers to the enclosure just south of Bangkok.<br /><br />Chinese firm Ctrip - Asia's biggest online booking agency that handles millions of holidaymakers a year - has now ditched the zoo and stopped selling tickets to the facility. <br /><br />The firm owns Skyscanner, Trip, and Tours4fun. <br /><br />Campaigners hope that by targeting customers and tour provides, they can halt the demand for such attractions, which they say leads to the suffering of animals. <br /><br />PETA announced this week that Ctrip would now stop selling tickets to the zoo and called on other tour operators to follow. <br /><br />Spokesman Jason Baker said: ''Ctrip did the right thing in nixing tickets to this despicable, abusive, brazen operation. <br /><br />PETA is calling on all travel companies still offering excursions to such facilities to follow Ctrip’s compassionate, business-savvy example and strike exploitative businesses from their itineraries.'' <br /><br />The zoo houses crocodiles, elephants, Asian Black Bears, chimps, tigers and other animals.<br /><br />The zoo has received criticism since December 2018 when footage first emerged of a painfully thin elephant being forced to perform tricks for crowds. <br /><br />Elephants are still present at the zoo and have to perform daily routine performances like knocking over skittles and standing on stools for a handful of visitors in the concrete arena. <br /><br />PETA said that the ''zoo handlers jabbed elephants with sharp metal spikes and forced them to give rides and perform tricks such as bowling, painting, and dancing.'' <br /><br />The charity said that the elephants could not interact with each other and ''continuously swayed back and forth, a symptom of psychological distress.''<br /><br />The footage was captured on July 30.
