Elephant Abuse

"How Circus Elephants Are Sometimes Abused by Their Trainers." About.com Animal Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.

http://animalrights.about.com/od/animalsinentertainment/a/JaynesElephant2.htm

 

 

Elephants are highly endangered species; with African elephants having around 300,000 as their population and Asian elephants only 30,000. There used to be millions of elephants roaming around. This is affected by poachers for ivory and meat, as well as zoos and circuses that take these elephants from their natural environments for human entertainment. Training an elephant that weighs up to 8,000 pounds and has so much strength takes negative reinforcement. With the beating of bull hooks if they don’t “behave” or listen to commands, and confining the elephants into small spaces making them very depressed, also giving them psychological problems. You can tell an elephant has been in confinement if they continuously sway back and forth or bob their head up and down repeatedly.  A report from Circuses.com says that during the off season (winter) of circuses; the elephants are kept in railroad cars, trucks, or small barn stalls. That is not acceptable for any kind of animal. For example, can you imagine putting your pet (dog or cat) in a carrying crate you bring them to the veterinaries office in for up to 70-80 percent of the day, every day? If an elephant refuses to perform they are beaten with bull hooks (shown on the right), they look like they aren’t harmed at the circus because they put something called “wonder dust” to cover it up.  Eventually these elephants get so beaten up and psychologically imbalanced from years of abuse that they go nuts and end up raging at a circus show, killing or injuring people. There are many reports where an elephant has stomped off the stage of a circus performance hurting people. But is the animal itself the one that’s in the wrong or is it what we humans put them through? I think an elephant raging and killing people at a circus show is a sign that they don’t belong there. They need to be in their natural habitats. I’m not saying that EVERY circus abuses their animals like this, but it definitely happens more often than it should.