What ever the reason the circus thinks that kids like seeing elephants perform is ridiculous and stupid. As a kid I hated seeing this and never could understand why. As an adult I still don't understand why? It should be banned! It's abuse in very way and should not be tolerated in any way!

I'm an ex-pat Brit, and many years ago a friend of mine - an RSPCA Inspector based in London - invited me to accompany him to a circus that had set up in his patch. He wore ordinary clothes (i.e, wasn't in uniform). This was to be an initial undercover observation to gather data, if there were any to gather. I went along as an extra pair of eyes.

One thing he asked to me to look for was a "tool" used to manipulate the elephants during the show. Essentially he described it as an ordinary wooden walking stick with a curved handle. The elephant trainer holds the stick by the end opposite the curved handle, and uses it to hook the curved end around the back of one of the knees of the elephant, to encourage it to perform some action.

Unlike an ordinary walking stick, however, this particular tool has had a large and very sharp nail driven into it, so that about half an inch of the pointed end protrudes through the handle and into the curve. When the elephant is hooked by this device, the sharp nail is driven into the animal's flesh and the pain makes it move accordingly.

When the trainer isn't hooking the elephant, he holds the stick by the handle in such a way that the sharp nail is hidden between his fingers and is not visible to the casual observer.

I watched for more than twenty minutes before I finally caught a glimpse of the nail - so adept was the trainer in manipulating the cane. After that it became easier to spot the nail whenever the trainer used the cane to hook into the poor animal.

Up to that point I had had no real opinion about circuses or their use of animals (not all do - the better ones rely on humans for the entertainment). I wasn't a fan of the circus and generally hadn't been to one since I was a small child.

That day changed my view entirely. What appeared to be a gentle tug with a harmless piece of curved wood was now shown to me to be a piece of cruel torture, enacted by a sadistic human being with no real regard for the animals under their control.

I've no doubt that the practice continues to this day, and anything any group can do to bring an end to this daily assault on animals gets my vote.

Wendy: We could not agree with you more. From your mouth to Cthulhu's ears.

Peter B.: Awesome story. Thank you for the well crafted contribution. Feel free to stop by and contribute any time.



--Sharky

Hello to everyone I hope this explains a lot
Intended for Ms Sharky and all readers.
I am a South African Living in Mpumalanga Sabie about 60km from Kruger National Park.
Keeping this info in mind I'll try to explain why we shoot out Elephants in South Africa:
What is an Elephant?
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidae
Family: Elephantidae
Genus species: Loxodonta (slanting tooth) africana (from Africa)
Size: 3 to 4 m (10 - 13 ft.) tall at shoulder; 6 to 7.25 m long (20 - 24 ft.)
Weight: 3200 to 6400 kg (7000 - 14000 lb.), females are smaller
Description: largest of all land mammals, with large ears, a long trunk, and large tusk
Life Span: up to 70 years
Gestation: 22 to 24 months
Sexual Maturity: females (cows) 10 to 11 years, males (bulls) 10 to 20 years
Habitat: found in the forests, grasslands, marshes, scrub, and semi-desert areas of sub-Saharan Africa. There is a distinct sub-species, the forest elephant, found in the tropical forests of central Africa.
herbivore that eats all types of vegetation such as grasses, leaves, fruits, and bark
Status: listed by USFWS as threatened and protected by CITES
Elephants eat grass, small branches, and bark from trees. They especially like leaves from the top branches. They get the leaves by pushing down the trees with their large heads and bodies. Then they get the bark by scraping it with their sharp tusks. Most elephants live in the grasslands of Africa and in the forests . They live in groups called herds. The herd is typically composed of up to ten females and their young. All of the females in the herd are directly related to the matriarch, who is typically the oldest and largest female. Males beyond the age of maturity are with the herd only during mating. A herd is a group that may have ten or more elephants. It is usually led by a female elephant. Herds have been known to travel ten miles or even farther to look for food and water. When elephants travel, they walk very quietly in single file. Young elephants are led by the older elephants with their tails. They stay close to their mothers at all times. The entire herd will protect the young ones if there's any sign of danger.

So why do we kill elephants?

In the last few years elephants have been multiplying in numbers and they need to eat as they consume about 770 pounds of food in one day. Now the problem starts showing. The size of Kruger National park is over 2 million hectares in size (about the size of Belgium). With the elephants multiplying at a astonishing rate the food sources in the Park are limited. South Africa Mpumalanga, where the Kruger National park is located are well known to be very dry in the winter months (April-august) this means that when winter comes there is scarce resources for the game(Wild life) to eat. Usually when that happens you see hundreds of animals die because of the dry situation.
Elephants are known to push down trees to get to the food source (leaves) at the top even elephants are small compared to the big trees and they love the big fat green leaves in the top of the Marula trees.
Ok so the reason we shoot elephants in South Africa is simple we shoot some of them to save other animals and more... You see if left to nature the elephants will destroy everything in search of food and all those trees die after they've been pushed down by elephants. Millions of animals will die if we stop this totally yes of course there is ways to prevent it, like selling them and moving them to new places but 95% of the time we are forced to kill a few elephants to save hundreds of animals.
What I mean to say is this I hate animal cruelty more than anyone. I have helped to free lions, elephants and more from deadly poacher traps and I have seen animals suffer and I blame people for the lack of knowledge they have to see what they're doing is wrong and unethical in every way, but good people are controlling the killings of elephants to save others and the elephants, to save them from themselves for our future generations.
Elephant Facts ... Did You know?
Elephants stomp when they walk.
Elephants sleep standing up.
Sometimes baby elephants lie down to sleep.
Elephants bathe. Sometimes the spray dirt on themselves to get the parasites off. Sometimes they bathe in mud
Elephants live in herds.
They cool off by fanning their ears. This cools the blood in their ears. That blood goes to the rest of their body and cools off the elephant.
They poop 80 pounds in one day.
Elephants weigh 10,000 pounds. It would take 250 students to add up to 10,000 pounds.
They collect food with their trunks.
Only grown up ladies and their babies live in the herds.
The daddy elephants leave the herd when they are 12 years old.
They fight with their tusks.
They eat grass and bark.
During the wet season they eat things low to the ground.
During the dry season they use their trunk to gather food from trees and bushes.
They suck up water into their trunks and shoot it into their mouths.
Elephants need lots of room to roam and eat. (Some of us think that this must mean they are not happy in the zoo or in the circus.)
They can run 24mph for short distances.
So I do hope you understand and hopefully this helped to clear at least the animal lovers of South Africa names from some of the things you and others may think we are doing. We are helping them in truth and for more info please do not hesitate to ask
Your travel Buddy
Gerbrand Steenkamp

Gerbrand Steenkamp,

Thank you for your well written contribution. We don't know as much about Elephants as we'd like to, but we do know that we don't like to see them perform in circuses. This does not help Elephants or the people. Too be honest--and this is my uneducated opinion--I would almost rather see Elephants culled humanely then sold to Ringling Brothers and have to wear those terrible tiaras and dance around with sexually ambiguous human "performers."


--Ms Sharky

I was fond of elephants when I was younger but never saw them perform in a circus. I didn't know they were being treated that horribly as Peter described. That's just cruel. Thanks for enlightening me.

Thanks I must say I hate animal cruelty it sucks I wish they "the Circus" can be chained and beaten repeatedly....

All I'm saying is I vote for No circus Animals

I agree the circus is soooo boring and too cruel. Ban it. Maybe in 100 years that will happen!

i cant beleive someone can be so cruel to actuelly do that to a poor helpless animal!thats horrible.

Hey Gerbrand Steenkamp .. i was really astonished to that .. maybe.. but certainly keeping them in circus is certainly against the law and i fully agree with post that talks about animal cruelity

You have discuss very sensitive issue of animal hostage,I do agree that Elephants can not be trained for entertainment purpose.The animals should be free to live in the jungle.Keep posting such articles so that the issues like you mentioned here can be discussed.

Well, there are many reasons to consider why people are doing such things. But anyway, what we need is information such as this. An explanation why killing elephants is necessary.

Some are used for entertainment purposes but they might be having permits on that. Let's share information as much as possible to educate everyone.

i thought the first was the sickest

been following your blog for 3 days now and i should say i am starting to like your post. and now how do i subscribe to your blog?

Its very that the animals go threw this.

OMG! poor elephants. The price is so expensive. Better spend it in other places rather than spending it in the circus.