In local news I see the Big Top has risen, and the Circus is in town. Fortunately this circus does not have an elephant in its show - and is entirely animal free.
There used to be a Circus touring NZ and they had the one elephant named Jumbo, an African elephant, and Jumbo was in its show for over thirty years. It used to upset me as when they were in town, this poor elephant was tethered to a post, by her leg, and would just rock back and forth continually. No matter what time of day I would drive past, this poor elephant was just swaying. I could not avoid that route either as I needed to get my mail.That was so upsetting.
Eventually I was pleased to hear that Jumbo was retired and her care was initially taken over by the SPCA and then she was transferred to a small zoo in 2012, and renamed Mila. There she learnt to do what should have been natural elephant behaviour and life was going well.
Unfortunately tragedy decided to cast it's gloomy cloud again, when Mila crushed her keeper to death at the zoo. The assumption was made that because Mila had been trained in her circus life to assume the sitting position, that that is what she had done in her enclosure, with tragic consequences for the keeper.
Funds were raised and Mila was relocated once again at the beginning of 2014. She is now in a much more natural environment and overseas at San Diego Zoo, where they care for aging elephants. Mila is now 41 years old and it took her nearly all of her lifetime to meet another elephant.
Isn't the above facts enough proof that animals do not belong in a circus?
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