Archives

Three elephants temporarily escaped from a circus in St. Louis, damaging cars in the parking lot.

Circus elephants escape

While the eye-witnesses who spoke to reporters used the word “escape” to describe the incident, none conveyed an understanding that these elephants are prisoners in the first place, kidnapped from their mothers, chained for most of their lives and deprived of the ability to do anything that comes naturally to them. While the circus spokespeople say that these elephants “are now resting comfortably in their compound,” we know that their “trainers” will punish them by beating them with bullhooks, the weapons used to scare elephants into submission. The use of bullhooks was recently outlawed in Los Angeles. In the absence of bullhooks, elephants would trample their trainers. Ringling Brothers can therefore no longer travel to Los Angeles. On March 21st, One Green Planet published an article on 5 ways you can help end the use of animals in circuses.