Elephants have the largest brains of any mammal on the face of the Earth. They are creative, altruistic and kind. They use tools to sweep paths and even to draw pictures in the dirt and scratch themselves in inaccessible places, and they communicate subsonically at frequencies so low that humans cannot detect them without sophisticated equipment. Imagine, then, what it must be like for them to be told what to do, courtesy of a bullhook -- a rod resembling a fireplace poker with a sharp metal hook on the end -- at every moment of their lives. Yet this is what life is like for elephants used in circuses, who are constantly beaten and kept chained, sometimes for days at a time.
It takes a lot to get circusgoers to see beyond the headdresses and glitter to that metal-tipped bullhook sinking into an elephant's soft flesh behind her ears and knees. But I hope that PETA's new undercover investigation of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will help open some eyes.
PETA's investigator caught Ringling employees digging sharp metal bullhooks into the sensitive skin behind elephants' knees and under their trunks. Eight employees -- including an animal superintendent and a head elephant trainer -- used bullhooks and other objects to strike elephants on the head, ears and trunk. Employees whipped elephants and a tiger, including on or near the face. One elephant, Tonka, repeatedly exhibited signs of severe psychological stress but was nevertheless forced to perform night after night. The footage can be seen at www.PETA.org.
All of this was going on while Ringling was already on trial in a federal court in Washington, D.C., answering charges that its elephant-handling practices violate the federal Endangered Species Act.
In their natural homes, elephants live for more than 70 years; their average life span in captivity is just 14 years. Because of stress, travel in boxcars and time spent stabled in damp basements, many captive elephants have arthritis, lame legs and tuberculosis.
Left to their own devices in their homelands, elephants are highly social beings who enjoy extended family relationships. Aunts babysit, mothers teach junior life skills such as how to use different kinds of leaves and mud to ward off sunburn and insect bites, babies play together under watchful eyes, lovemaking is gentle and complex and elephant relatives mourn their dead.
In captivity, elephants are deprived of all these experiences. Life under the big top means "pay attention to your trainers, feel the bite of their implements in your flesh, don't stumble or falter even if you feel tired or ill, obey, obey, obey." It means leg chains between acts, the loss of all comfort and warmth from your father and mother and no long-term friends.
Behaviorists tell us that elephants can and do cry from the loss of social interaction and from physical abuse. Yes, cry. If you wonder how these magnificent beings keep from going mad -- waiting in line night after night, eyes riveted on the person with the metal hook, ready to circle to the music in their beaded headdresses -- perhaps the answer is, they don't. PETA's investigator at Ringling documented stereotypic behavior, which is typically seen in animals who are suffering from extreme stress caused by a lack of anything to do, the inability to move around, severe frustration and desolation.
Sometimes, elephants stop behaving like wind-up toys and crush the bones and breath out of a keeper, make a break for it, go berserk or run amok. But most simply endure. Their spirits were broken during their capture and, later, God help them, when they were trained for the ring. Otherwise, they would all use their immense strength to fight back against the human hand of tyranny. They would refuse to be kept chained between performances like coats on a rack, refuse to be backed up ramps into railroad cars and trailers like so many cars being parked out of the way.
Ringling and other circuses have made it clear that they have no intention of stopping their abusive practices. And the law -- which provides minimal requirements for cage size and little else -- does not protect animals in circuses. It's up to us to say "enough is enough."
I dont mean to be so critical but these poor animals are subject to this kind of treatment everyday of there lives and forced to get pregnant then they separate the Mom's and babies so they can start abuse all over again to train the babies to entertain. Please everyone Vote to put a stop to this before it is to late the USDA is taking to long and the trail that the RIngling Brothers is in might last awhile and meanwhile the circus goes on and the animals will suffer until we all put a stop to this. Thank you all for voting and viewing the proof even though this is so heartbreaking. Copy and paste this link in your browser and it will take you the the website to Vote and Video:
By the way this investigation was just Video this year 2009 after the Ringling's are in Court. So they are still abusing them after they lied and said they use the BULLHOOK as a guide and they love there animals very much.
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2359
Bravo, PETA, for having the courage to show us what goes on routinely behind closed doors. Animals suffer unimagineably; the public needs to know.
The circus's treatment of animals is egregiously cruel and indefensible.
USDA "oversight" is a meaningless joke. Animal exhibitors like Ringling Bros. get a wink and a nod and a free ride. Ringling has failed to comply with the MINIMAL standards of law for decades yet they continue to go blithely about their business--they know they are protected from any meaningful reprecussions. The USDA is nothing more than a alibi for animal profiteers. Please, stop buying a ticket to any animal-based circus. When you do, you are directly supporting animals being abused. It's that simple.
We can demonstrate and hand out literature when there is a circus in town. We can use still and video cameras to document any animal cruelty and report it to humane officers.
We can lobby state, county, and city governments to ban animal circuses from being allowed to put on shows within their borders.
We can write to our local media and ask them to cover the topic to inform others.
Other commenters have noted the threatened and endangered state of the elephant in the wild. Poaching of elephants is increasing and the demand for ivory continues to threaten these amazing animals. Just recently, Kenyan officials seized $1 million worth of illegally poached ivory bound for Asian markets: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSB113848 Because of this haul and the growing poaching crisis, Kenyan wildlife officials have called for a total global ban on ivory sales.
If we care about elephants, then we need to say no to cruelty in circuses and also support a global ban on ivory sales to crack down on the crisis of poaching our remaining wild elephants: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/233178753
"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals... In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth." - Henry Beston
Of course, your thoughts of the happy elephants in the wild, living, learning and loving, as elephants do, will someday soon itself be just a memory. There are so few living this way now, and less land to live it on every day. As long as we continue our rapid reproduction and expansion, nothing will stop this destruction, despite the nobile efforts of a few great people. Hope they don't stop trying though......
PS: Elephants in the wild can and do go on rampages. They often will stomp every living being in their path to death. There is no organization that defends the rights of those being stomped to death.
As far as your rampaging elephants go, are you kidding? The number of elephants killed by humans, by far, excedes any casualties they have inflicted upon us...... though, that's really not the point.
Priorities