Letter of the day: No getting around it: Elephants are abused

“Davison seems to indicate that a back-stage pass to the circus would help in some way to inform the issue. This is nonsense, as the cruelty that is at the very heart of the issue itself could have, and likely would have, occurred during the elephants’ training, and not backstage during the circus.” - Star Tribune

Tags: Abuse, Circus, Opinion, Star Tribune

Posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 8:45 am

One Response to “Letter of the day: No getting around it: Elephants are abused”

Jim Naelitz on February 14th, 2008 at 4:18 pm

These people are crack pots. Many of the complaints come from people who have never been around elephants before in there life or by people who have witnessed a situation that they most likely misinterpret. I have been working elephants for 16 years and know many people who work in the circus industry. If those animals were as abused as the animal rights groups claim they would not be any shape to perform the behaviors that are incorporated into their act. I will admit there are some cases in the past of harsh training practices but these are far and few between. The percentage of handlers who use those tactics is less than the percentage of people who abuse their children. The animal rights groups make statements that all trained behaviors are a result of abuse and “beating the animals into submission”. So, is it safe to say that all children are being abused because there is a small number of people who use inappropriate tactics to train their children?