Friday, January 23, 2009
Silverman Ringling Bros. Elephant Abuse Show Comes to Nashville This Weekend
Posted by Jack Silverman on Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 6:01 AM
The Greatest (Animal Torture) Show on Earth comes to town this weekend when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus hits the Sommet Center for seven shows today through Sunday.
You don't have to be a vegetarian or hardcore animal rights activist to be pretty disgusted by the treatment circus animals receive. In fact, it's mind-boggling that so many people condone this behavior just so little Tommy and Susie can see an elephant ride a Harley or whatever the hell it is they do. I'm sure Tommy and Susie would be screaming and crying if they saw the hellish lives these animals lead when they're not onstage.
That's not to say the Ringling folks don't have a sense of humor. Take this page from their website, devoted to their Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida, which was no doubt developed to counter the increasingly negative publicity they've received over the years (and to keep them stocked with more doomed elephants):
A lifelong symbol of The Greatest Show on Earth®, the Asian elephant is a respected and revered member of the Ringling Bros.® family. In the interest of the species' present and future well-being, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation® was established in 1995. Located in central Florida, this 200-acre, $5-million, state-of-the-art facility is dedicated to the conservation, breeding and understanding of these amazing animals.
A respected and revered member of the family, huh?
Like the saying goes, "There's a sucker born every minute." Damn, who was it who said that again? I used to have a memory like an elephant's, but I'm drawing a blank.
For more on the happy lives of circus animals, visit PETA's website devoted to the subject. You can also see our slideshow of PETA's Nashville protest here.
And don't even get me started on how creepy clowns are.
Comments (23)
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For more on circus animals read Water for Elephants. I'd love to see a Ringling Bros. elephant do what Rosie did.
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Is there a way to train the animals without brutality? The draw of the circus has long been the animals. Before cable television and metropolitan zoos, the traveling circus was the only way many people were ever able to see "wild" and exotic animals.
I'm not for the mistreatment of animals and understand the difference between training a dog to not mess on your carpet and beating an elephant just b/c he can't stand on a tiny stool on his hind legs (I watched the PETA video...horrid, truly horrid)...but taking the animals out of the circus would remove not only a piece of circus history, but some of the magic.
So is there a way to accomplish the training without abusing the animals?
Since when is PETA a reliable source for anything other than examples of animal rights activism carried to the point of absurdity?
The Scene has gone from counter-culture to laughable with this article. Just because the opposition newspaper is a biased rag, does that mean the Scene has to become one as well in order to create "balance"?
An article detailing the supposed "abuse" of animals in the circus would have been welcome. But citing PETA as a source in an animal rights story is like citing Exxon in a story explaining that ANWAR is really a frozen wasteland where the caribou desperately want oil pipelines to cuddle with.
Shame on you.
"The Scene has gone from counter-culture to laughable with this article."
Amen and amen. Laughable is a kind description. Looney would be better.
This is a continuing saga. PETA continues to show outdated footage and give misinformation while the general public is dumb enough to believe everything these animal rights extremists spew forth. How are you going to make an animal that big do something it doesn't want to? Articles like this lump the Scene in the same catagory as the National Enquirer.
As a vegetarian, I'd normally be inclined to side with the animal rights activists. But seeing as how elephant meat is the lone exception I allow myself, I'd feel like too much of a hypocrite if I feigned outrage.
1) I'm glad I could provide laughs for some of you. It's a dark time in our country, and if I can inject some levity into the situation, I'm glad to help.
2) As co-worker Caleb said just now, PETA may be extreme and nutty at times, but it doesn't mean they're wrong on this issue. No one in their right mind thinks these circus animals are treated humanely.
3) Adam, who knows, maybe there's a way to keep animals in the circus and treat them humanely. But it seems unlikely you'd ever be able to provide remotely humane accommodations for animals the size of elephants. But I'm not sure I care much for the historical significance or the need to preserve that magic. The same argument could have been made about gladiators, but I think we've survived without them just fine.
4) Jim, thanks for the kind words. I've long been a fan of the Enquirer, and in fact it's my second favorite paper, after the Weekly World News. Speaking of which, the cadence of your prose is quite familiar...was it you who wrote Ed Anger's "My America" column?
5) There is no 5.
6) Go back to 5.
I spent quite a few years working for RBBB, and the hysterical anti-circus bunch has no clue what they're talking about.
Like this article, which admits as such: "an elephant ride a Harley or whatever the hell it is they do."
Well, if you spent any time talking to and observing the trainers, visiting the CEC, getting to know the professionals involved, understanding that there's no rational reason on earth why anyone involved would harm an elephant, you might change your tune.
Let's get to basic, unemotional, hardcore reality: The circus is a business. In any business, does it make business sense to harm one of the key benefits to your business? Does it make sense to do anything but take the best care of that element of your business that puts money in your pocket? Duh.
But that's okay -- keep giving monet to PeTA and listening to their propaganda.
Yeah, PeTA -- the ones who claim to care about animals, but "rescue" them only to kill them. PeTA, the people who sent someone dressed as a devil to dance graveside at the funeral of Gunther Gebel-Williams -- in front of his kids and grandkids.
Classy bunch.
No! there is no way to train a wild animal Adam, you know why? Because they are wild! Forget circus history! These animals are being exploited for the entertainment of humans and it is wrong wrong wrong on every level!
This is journalism? Seriously? I know grade school kids who write better than this. I feel less intelligent for having read this crap.
Yes, Adam, there are way to train animals without abusing them. It's called "positive reinformcement". It's the way animals are trained. Animal abuse is actually illegal in this country. Circuses have law enforcement, animal contol and other government officials crawling up their rear ends all the time just dying to find a way to shut them down but, obviously, the activists' definition of "abuse" doesn't stand up in court.
Unfortunately, there is no way to argue the point with the animal rights crowd. Their minds are made up so don't confuse them with the facts. I have yet to meet one this is anything but a barking moonbat to begin with. All they know about circus animals is what they've read in books or on their computers (and if it's on the interwebs you KNOW it must be true!). Basing opinions on ignorance, misinformation and tired, outdated stereotypes doesn't say a whole lot for a person's intelligence. You just can't argue with stupid.
Oh, and you adults that say you're scared of clowns: grow up! Or at least get some psychiatric treatment. You scare me!
Barry, if I've made even one person feel less intelligent, then I feel it's been a productive day. And please send us the names of these grade school kids. We're always looking for good writers.
"PETA may be extreme and nutty at times, but it doesn't mean they're wrong on this issue."
As P.T. Barnum said, there's a sucker born every minute.
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You tell 'em, Big G! If there's anyone who knows extreme and nutty, it's you!
LOL
For those of you that would like a different perspective than PETA, please visit
http://www.elephants.com/. From their website:
The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, is the nation's largest natural-habitat refuge developed specifically to meet the needs of endangered elephants. It is a non-profit organization, licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, designed specifically for old, sick or needy elephants who have been retired from zoos and circuses. Utilizing more than 2700 acres, it provides three separate and protected, natural-habitat environments for Asian and African elephants. Our residents are not required to perform or entertain for the public; instead, they are encouraged to live like elephants.
Phil Snyder, regional director emeritus of the Humane Society of the United States has stated, "The Elephant Sanctuary represents the future of enlightened captive elephant management."
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Damn! Sure glad I'm not a member of that family. Humans are such a gullible lot, and Feld and his ilk are knuckle-dragging brutes. What utter and contemptible trash.
@Gilbert: In fact, P.T. Barnum never said that -- it was a competitor of Barnum's who was making an observation on Barnum's success.
But you're forgiven ... my experience shows me that the pro-PeTA crowd doesn't allow facts to get in the way of a good story.
As for PeTA: Just because they're strident on the issue doesn't mean they're right.
There are a lot of people out there who need to graduate from Trendy Activism 101 and dig deeper into PeTA -- take a few minutes and see what their agenda really is and where their money actually goes.
@amy: Your ignorance on the issue is being exploited the entertainment of Web surfers.
@Jack: When did you stop beating your mother with a lead pipe?
That comment to Jack is stupid and in bad taste, but it's equivalent to the pro-PeTA comments on this thread. You can't prove a negative, but the claim itself poisons the discussion.
Claims of torture abound, but as Barry points out: the anti-circus bunch is so far up the butts of the circus trying to prove allegations of torture that if things were even 1/10 as bad as they claim, there'd be dozens upon dozens of new undercover videos released weekly.
PeTA acolytes need to think a little harder about the issues and not just uncritically accept everything they say as gospel.
Ringling goes on trial next week in Washington for violating the Endangered Species Act by abusing elephants.
I know it's a little late for this considering this thread died three years ago, but I am appalled at some of these comments. So PETA is a little over-the-top...I get that. I'm not necessarily a supporter of PETA, but I AM a supporter of animals, especially elephants. For those of you who made the comment that this footage is out-of-date and that this type of behavior is no longer happening today, have you seen the footage of the Ringling Bros. beating the elephants in 2009? Sure, it was released by PETA, but it is evidence that this still occurs today. If you haven't, there are several gruesome scenes, but one in particular really touched me. One of the mean striked an elephant in the face with a bull hook and said "F--- you, bad ass. Back up." And if you really really hate PETA and don't believe ANYTHING they release, then did you see the footage taken by a circus attendee in 2011 of the elephant that collapsed while being loaded onto a train because she was exhausted and forced to perform in pain? Release yourself from denial. And what's wrong with Jack's writing? There's nothing wrong with having a sense of humor.
to nospam who said in defense of Ringling:" In any business, does it make business sense to harm one of the key benefits to your business? Does it make sense to do anything but take the best care of that element of your business that puts money in your pocket? Duh."
Do you realize that this was one of the arguments used by slaveholders in the American South? I guess you would have believed it had you lived then. As it was not true then, it is not true now. If left alone some businesses will abuse and terrorize living beings that "put money in their pocket" to the brink of death and sometimes beyond because that is how the most profit is made - Duh!!!!!
