BANGKOK, Thailand (EPN) -- The U.S. animal rights group PETA and the Thai government are battling over allegations that baby elephants are routinely "tortured for tourists" until they are "oozing blood and pus".

Thailand's Foreign Ministry claimed that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) "shared responsibility for the torturing" of a baby elephant which recently appeared in a grim PETA video.

Nevertheless, the video showed "one isolated and illegal incident," the foreign ministry added.

"Video footage, showing still-nursing baby elephants being dragged from their mothers, trussed with ropes and steel cables, and savagely beaten, is all to real" in Thailand, replied Debbie Leahy, Virginia-based director of PETA's Captive Exotic Animals department.

In the PETA video, "villagers are seen shoving nails down to the elephants' ears, slicing their heads with blades and striking them with nail-studded sticks.

"After a week of this, the elephants are covered with wounds, their bodies oozing blood and pus. The terrified and traumatized babies are then sold to 'elephant camps' where they are forced to perform circus tricks and give rides to tourists," Ms. Leahy said in an open letter published in a Thai newspaper on Friday (Dec. 20).

She invited people to view the video of elephants being tortured via PETA's website.

"Thailand's Baby Elephants Tortured for Tourists," the PETA website warned.

It mocked the Thai government's official "Amazing Thailand" tourism logo by changing it to read "Abusive Thailand: Elephant Cruelty".

PETA said "horrific torture" of elephants "is routine in Thailand's secret training camps" which "leave the elephants badly injured, traumatized or even dead."

In Australia, a nude, blonde fashion model posed in shackles and handcuffs while holding a sign in English and Thai which read: "Imagine being an elephant in Thailand -- PETA."

A Reuters photograph of Imogen Bailey's act on Dec. 12 was published in newspapers around the world, heralding PETA's plan to use pictures from the photo-session in its campaign.

Thai officials were outraged at the torture allegations and hit back by trying to discredit PETA.

"Instead of quickly notifying the Thai authorities, PETA sought to videotape the torturing and tormenting of the young elephant," the foreign ministry said in a lengthy statement.

"By the very fact that PETA was present openly at the crime scene, PETA directly or indirectly had a part in the suffering of the baby elephant," it added.

"If you are angered and saddened by what you have seen in PETA's video footage, you should realize that it was PETA which had a hand in the horrific incident and shared responsibility for the torturing and suffering of that baby elephant," the foreign ministry said.

The statement published in Thai newspapers and also posted on the foreign ministry's website.

Abuse of elephants in Thailand often involves elephants who lumber along the polluted streets of Bangkok day and night because their owners use them to beg money from tourists.

It is common to see elephants in Bangkok among cars in traffic or in front of restaurants, topless bars or hotels while the owners, on foot, offer to sell fruit to tourists and other pedestrians who then feed the beasts.

In the countryside, elephants are sometimes forced to eat methamphetamines and other stimulant drugs so the animals work longer hours fetching logs, according to animal rights groups.

The foreign ministry said it wanted "mutual cooperation" with PETA to solve the problem and asked the public to support Thai and international organizations which help elephants and other animals, such as the Worldwide Fund for Nature and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

PETA meanwhile asked people to write Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the Washington DC-based Thai ambassador to the United States, to demand torture of any elephants in Thailand be stopped.

"Please let the [Thailand] tourism authority know that you won't travel to Thailand until laws are enacted to protect elephants," PETA added.

A bill strengthening laws against torturing elephants was "being drafted," the foreign ministry said.

Thailand's king recently enacted the bill protecting elephants as a "national symbol."

King Bhumibol Adulyadej recently announced the bill to parliament for their "consent" and noted it would soon be enforced after publication in the government's official gazette.

"No person shall maim, mutilate, torture, wound, beat, strike, harass, overwork, overload or otherwise mistreat an elephant or use painful techniques or devices that may cause physical injury, pain or suffering to an elephant, including, but not limited to [metal poles], sticks, knives, nails, and electric prods," the text of the bill said.

"In addition, such devices shall not be inserted into any bodily orifice of an elephant," it decreed.

"No stimulants or painkillers shall be used to make an elephant work," the bill added in a list of rules and punishments.

"No person shall use an elephant for commercial or entertainment purposes, including...elephant rides, photo opportunities, begging, elephant polo or performances of any kind," the bill said.