#captive elephants

This story tells us that, in the US, between 25 and 30 traveling circuses remain in business and are continuing their traveling shows. Together, these circuses “own” 60 elephants (and hundreds of other animals) for human entertainment. I’m surprised that any circuses remain in business, and also surprised that these “entertainers” own any elephants. I thought that, by now, elephants would have been sent off to sanctuaries to live the remainder of their lives in relative comfort. Nope, not true. Excerpt from this story from Nation of Change:

Many people are unaware that circuses are still part of the American culture. The closing of the infamous Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in May 2017 did not mark the end of cruelty perpetrated on elephants, who are forced into captivity and made to perform in circuses. Between 25 and 30 traveling circuses, which include caged wild animals, continue to travel and operate in the United States. There are currently more than 60 elephants and hundreds of other animals still being used for human entertainment. Circus animal cruelty and exploitation are rampant. Some operators like Loomis Bros. Circus and Carson & Barnes Circus continued operating throughout the worst of the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and were once again advertising their show schedules for the spring and summer season in 2021. Currently, Carden Circus, Loomis Bros. Circus, Carson & Barnes Circus, Tarzan Zerbini Circus, and others are back on the road with elephants and other wild exotic animals.

Performing elephants are deprived of all that is natural to them. The methods used to train a wild animal into submission include beatings, electric shock (hot shots), food and water deprivation, and brutal intimidation. Elephants do not stand on their heads, sit on stools, stand on their hind legs, or give rides to humans on their backs because they want to; they do it because they are forced to with brutal training methods, as exemplified in undercover videos that can be found on YouTube.

While the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been tasked by Congress to enforce the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which was signed into law in 1966 and is the primary federal law that regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition and transport, the AWA provides only minimum acceptable standards and historically has rarely been enforced. A prime example of this lack of enforcement is the story of Nosey the elephant. Nosey was captured in Zimbabwe when she was two years of age in 1984 and was brought to a Florida ranch with 62 other young elephants. About two years later, she ended up in the hands of former circus clown Hugo Liebel. Liebel used Nosey to perform in his circus and dragged her all over the country in a filthy, dilapidated trailer for more than 30 years.

Sri Lanka will issue captive elephants with their own biometric identity cards and ban their riders from drinking on the job, under a wide-ranging new animal protection law.

Many rich Sri Lankans - including Buddhist monks - keep elephants as pets to show off their wealth, but complaints of ill treatment and cruelty are widespread.

The new measures are aimed at protecting the animals' welfare and include strict regulations around working elephants, as well as mandating a daily two-and-a-half-hour bath for each creature.

Excerpt:

Catching an elephant from the wild can shorten its life by several years, a new study shows.

For the study, published Tuesday in Nature Communications, researchers studied records of 5,000 timber elephants in Myanmar to understand the effects of capture. They determined that capturing and taming wild-caught elephants resulted in a median lifespan that is 3–7 years shorter than their captive-born counterparts.

"Capturing elephants to sustain captive populations is, consequently, detrimental, because it not just reduces wild populations of this endangered species, but it also cannot provide a viable solution to sustain captive populations," said senior investigator Virpi Lummaa of the University of Turku in Finland in a press release for the study. "These wild-caught animals live shorter lives and reproduce poorly in captivity."

Potential reasons for their shorter lifespans are changes in their social environment and/or stress from capture, the researchers said. Methods of capture can include driving whole groups into a stockade, lassoing single elephants or immobilization via sedation.

When Audrey Gaffney first read about Raju, an elephant kept in chains with spikes embedded in his ankles, she couldn’t stop the tears pouring down her face. “In fact, I cried again and again: I found over the next few days I just couldn’t get this story out of my head, I couldn’t stop thinking about Raju,” she recalls. “I couldn’t believe the cruelty of my race.” The young elephant had been snatched from his family, she explains – his mother either would have been killed or spent weeks searching and crying for him – and he was beaten into submission. Raju then spent the next 50 years forced by his handler to beg in the street, starved, frightened and suffering infected wounds to his flesh. By the time of his rescue, he had resorted to eating plastic and paper.

This is India where people will string you up for eating beef. And before you say "Yes, but the cow is sacred in India," so is the elephant. Hypocrites, just like most religious people.

Registration of Elephants not necessary for ticketless Gajamela

The Kerala High Court on Monday September 28, 2015 in V.K. Venkitachalam Vs. State of Kerala held that registration under the Performing Animals (Registration) Rules, 2001 is necessary only when elephant is exhibited or trained at an entertainment where public is admitted by sale of tickets.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice A.M. Shaffique also ruled that whereas…

Two Years Ago on ISBAA : Eagles at National Aviary, Pittsburgh

I thought it would be fun to do a quick post on a couple of other residents at the National Aviary, these two eagles. ( please see second photo and text below) (more…)