Was the pachyderm star of Water for Elephants abused by trainers five years before the movie was shot? INSIDE EDITION has the story.
Was the elephant featured with Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson in Water for Elephants tortured years ago?
The animal rights group Animal Defenders International (ADI) claims just-released video shows Tai the elephant being shocked with an electric stun gun.
In the video, a trainer whacks Tai on the leg so she'll perform a headstand. Later, she is jabbed I the ear with a sharp hook so she'll lie down.
"I think every reasonable person will look at that and say, this is wrong," says Jan Creamer of ADI.
The video also shows trainers filing down tusks with a saw and jabbing at a baby elephant to get him a stand on a platform.
"These animals don't do these tricks because they want to. They do them if they're forced to," Creamer tells INSIDE EDITION.
The video was shot in 2005, five years before Water for Elephants was filmed. Tai's trainers adamantly deny she was ever abused and call the video "heavily edited."
20th Century Fox says in a statement to INSIDE EDITION:
"This video was NOT taken during the training for, or production of, our film, and neither Tai nor any other animal performer in the film was harmed in any way during the making of this film."
The studio adds that the American Humane Association oversaw the filming of Water for Elephants to ensure that no animals were mistreated.
