Connecticut For Animals: Abolitionist animal rights activism: October 2007

A life spent in confinement and isolation. . .:

The natural needs of wild animals cannot be met in traveling shows. Animals enslaved in circuses lead miserable lives confined to cages, transport, and chains. Family bonds are torn apart. Animals are tortured into performing tricks; tricks that inflict further pain and suffering. Consider the elephants now touring with Ringling’s Blue Unit:

Unnatural unhealthy lives:
Ringling boasts that its trains crisscross the country 11 months of the year, logging more than 25,000 miles. The elephants are forced to travel in extreme temperatures in cramped cars, eating and sleeping in their own excrement, for most of their lives. When not in transit, they are chained in tiny pens. They are trained through the violent use of bullhooks and electric shock, and perform only out of fear that they will be subjected to yet more pain.

In the wild elephants roam for miles every day, foraging, swimming, and playing with their families. Ringling’s elephants never get to engage in any of these natural behaviors. The only “exercise” they get is performing tricks that are not only unnatural, they are often harmful to their bodies. Ringling’s claim that the tricks you see are based on natural elephant behaviors is simply false. Wild elephants do not stand on their heads or on two legs, and they do not walk
trunk to tail.

The results of these conditions are dire. Many of the Ringling elephants show signs of neurotic behavior, such as swaying and head-bobbing, from boredom and severe stress. They are also prone to foot and bone disease, a leading cause of premature death in captive elephants, the result of standing too long on hard surfaces in their own waste. And a number of Ringling’s elephants have been diagnosed with or exposed to a human strain of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB). Several elephants, including some from the Blue Unit, were pulled off the road because of exposure to TB. TB is known to thrive in the cramped, close quarters that these elephants are forced to endure day in and day out.

Families torn apart:

In the wild, elephants spend their lives together in herds of related females – the female babies stay with their mothers and aunts for life, caring for one another. The male babies do not leave the herd until they are nearly adults – into their teens. The entire herd helps to love and nurture the babies.

Of the seven elephants known to be touring with the Blue Unit, 3 were stolen from their mothers in Asia as infants,, and brought here to perform in the circus. The other 4 were bred by Ringling or other facilities for circus performance, and were torn from their mothers while still nursing to be trained for performance.

Four of Ringling’s baby elephants have died since 1998.
Sara, the baby elephant performing today, has been on the road with no mother to protect her since she was two years old. She is now six.

Ringling claims to be “conserving” an endangered species, but none of Ringling’s elephants has any hope of ever being returned to the wild Ringling’s captive breeding program is all about replenishing its supply of tormented performers who will die prematurely as the result of their treatment at Ringling’s hands. It is not at all about helping elephants in their natural habitats.

What you can do:

Please make this your last circus that uses animals for entertainment. Tell your friends and family. Remember, these animals suffer only because people continue to make their exploitation profitable.

GET ACTIVE!!!

Come on out to the circus demonstrations.
Feel free to contact Justin or Derek, authors at Connecticut for Animals. Tell us what you care about and what you want to see happen. We are all far more powerful and far more effective when we work together.

Vist these sites for more information about elephants, the circus, and what you can do:

Elephant Voices - An amazing place to learn about elephants in the wild - their magnificence and the dangers they face.

The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee - Go back to the top of this post and take a look of the picture of the elephant being loaded into the tiny boxcars. Imagine what that life is like and then visit this site to see the best that we can do for these animals that can't be returned to the wild. We can only imagine how much happier these elephants are.

"The Elephant in the Room" by Leslie Griffith - Nice old fashioned reporting uncovering some of the darker dealings of Kenneth Feld and his company, Feld Entertainment (aka Ringling Brothers.

"Star Treatment" a Telegraph Magazine article discussing some of the excellent work of Pat Derby, former "Flipper" trainer who nows runs a sanctuary and does tremendous work regarding animals exploited by the entertainment industry. She founded the organization PAWS (Performing Animal Welfare Society).

This is perhaps one of the most sad and tragic things I have ever seen and a powerful reminder of what exploitation means.