Elephants return to UK circus

Iteresting, might have to check this out.
Can't imagine it going down too well in the UK though.
 
ashley-h said:
Iteresting, might have to check this out.
Can't imagine it going down too well in the UK though.
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Just watched it on the news. The 'display' was pretty disgusting involving typical circus attire...

The also wheeled out the local idiot saying he has no problem with it because "there's nowhere else in this country to see these animals"

Edit again: I've also found the answer to my question from the circus' website...

This year we are pleased to welcome one African and two Asian elephants in an exciting but tender presentation. Our African elephant is called Sonja, and her mother was shot in an elephant cull due to overpopulation and was sold by the game park to raise capital for the running of the park. Our Indian elephants, Delhi and Vana Mana were born on a lumber camp in Burma and sold when weaned to an animal dealer to supplement the shrinking income of the camp as logging decreased. The animals are now great ambassadors for the species entertaining and educating the public within the care and security of the circus to protect them
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I saw the item tonight on the main ITV news and was astounded, i hate seeing the elephants in their "costumes", what do you learn about an elephant from them wearing that get up?
Housing seemed to consist of a tented indoor area and a standard size outdoor pen, bare of any furniture and surrounded by an electric fence.
I have to say any day i would sooner see an elephant in the care of a responsible zoological collection, but the animals themselves looked to be in excellent condition, and i have to say i was especially impressed with the African female, fully tusked a magnificent animal.

http://www.itv.com/News/Articles/Circus-slammed-over-elephant-act-781526572.html
 
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Kiang, I agree and surely they should be in zoos for the breeding programe (all 3 appear to be wild born). Woburn have recently built new elephant accomodation so they could've taken on the 2 Asians and somewhere like WMSP could've taken on the African.

Not only are they in a circus, but they are being wasted genetically as well
 
I don't see the problem with the head gear, it doesn't hurt them or anything.
And I guess they may try and educate, but the majority of the audience wouldn't listen if there was anything educational going on; they wouldn't even know which species was which ;)
Edit: Just saw the video, evidently the RSPCA guy hasn't done his research: of course a zoo elephant will stress more when travelling, it's not used to it :rolleyes: And circus elephants tend to live longer anyway.
 
Personnaly i just wish the RSPCA would leave zoo`s and circuses alone and do what they are good at which is helping save abused and mistreated Cats and Dogs,because i doubt very much they would know what to do with an Elephant if the circus hand it over,probably they would give it to Born Free which would be even worse as far as i`m concerned.
 
Ha indeed:
"Lets set it free!"
*elephant dies in wild due to lack of knowledge from Bornfree*
"Lets blame the circus!"
 
I agree with zoogiraffe , even if the animals where baned what would happen to them they can not simply be rehomed and the elephants come from germany and dont actually belong to the circus.

Many zoos conditions are simular to those that circus elehants are kept in ,i saw on the news a member of zoo staff disagreeing with a circus when they train there elephants (though not the same things). Many zoos train there elephants and keep them on about an acre of land such as colchester and blackpool.
 
Exactly, Whipsnade's elephants do a lot of circus style tricks, as do Blackpool's (or at least they did a few years back).
 
ashley-h said:
Ha indeed:
"Lets set it free!"
*elephant dies in wild due to lack of knowledge from Bornfree*
"Lets blame the circus!"
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It doesn't matter that it dies in some long and prolonged way as long it's free, starvation would be better than an evil zoo, cough, cough.
 
Haha of course ;)
 
I do admit been closer to Born Free when it comes to circuses, seeing the hurrendous conditions elephants (saddens me especially being my favourite animal) and big cats in horrifying conditions in France, and the thought of them here makes me feel sick.

IMO, rescue them all to be donated into retirement homes at zoos like Belfast are doing. Looking at Longleat when I mention that too.
 
That's a bit unfair. I might as well say I don't like zoos due to the horrnedous conditions in Spain and Asia.
It's a bit unfair to tar all circusses with the same brush.
 
No, there is great difference. You can get zoos where one might keep the animals in grim, cramped cages whilst another keeps them in vast, natural exhibits, but you can't get the difference with circuses. It's always small containment and harsh training. There was a case where a circus elephant escaped, killing and injuring before going on the rampage through a town till it was killed in a hail of bullets. Based on evidence seen in the wild where elephants attack the villages where people have specifically killed elephants in the past, I see this as revenge.

I can't think how ANYONE would see pleasure in painted elephants balancing atop each other in a noisy circus.
 
Marwell Dalek said:
There was a case where a circus elephant escaped, killing and injuring before going on the rampage through a town till it was killed in a hail of bullets. Based on evidence seen in the wild where elephants attack the villages where people have specifically killed elephants in the past, I see this as revenge.
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Sorry, but this is just nonsense.

Animals escape from zoos, and are then shot. Animals from zoos attack their keepers. Is this revenge too?

On this thread, and another on the same topic, there is an enormous amount of emotive balderdash being spouted about the evil of the circus. It comes from a combination of ignorance, prejudice and anthropromorphism - exactly the cocktail which leads to he piffle which is poured out by the anti-zoo lobby.

And all this talk of 'rescuing' the elephants, and the good old RSPCA getting involved... well, it just beggars belief. Have people been watching Dumbo rather too eagerly?

If people are truly concerned about elephant suffering, I would suggest that these animals are quite a long way down the list of needy cases.
 
sooty mangabey said:
Sorry, but this is just nonsense.

Animals escape from zoos, and are then shot. Animals from zoos attack their keepers. Is this revenge too?

On this thread, and another on the same topic, there is an enormous amount of emotive balderdash being spouted about the evil of the circus. It comes from a combination of ignorance, prejudice and anthropromorphism - exactly the cocktail which leads to he piffle which is poured out by the anti-zoo lobby.

And all this talk of 'rescuing' the elephants, and the good old RSPCA getting involved... well, it just beggars belief. Have people been watching Dumbo rather too eagerly?

If people are truly concerned about elephant suffering, I would suggest that these animals are quite a long way down the list of needy cases.
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Well said i totaly agree with every thing you`ve said in this post.
 
Marwell Dalek said:
I do admit been closer to Born Free when it comes to circuses, seeing the hurrendous conditions elephants (saddens me especially being my favourite animal) and big cats in horrifying conditions in France, and the thought of them here makes me feel sick.

IMO, rescue them all to be donated into retirement homes at zoos like Belfast are doing. Looking at Longleat when I mention that too.
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Born Free may do some good rescuing animals from poor conditions but even they are not perfect,the conditions they kept the Leopard and Lions that they took back to the wild in Africa (But still kept in a large fenced enclosure) where no better than most U.K Zoo`s in fact where probably worse than some of them!!!!!!!
 
Exactly, and I hate how everyone seems to think that elephants are always subject to "harsh training techiniques", when they're probably trained in no worse way than, say, a racehorse would be.
And the guy in the vid never even had an ankus (not that they're a bad thing anyway, they're only as bad as the person using them).
 
zoogiraffe said:
Born Free may do some good rescuing animals from poor conditions but even they are not perfect,the conditions they kept the Leopard and Lions that they took back to the wild in Africa (But still kept in a large fenced enclosure) where no better than most U.K Zoo`s in fact where probably worse than some of them!!!!!!!
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Ah, but they're in Africa, ergo they're free and happier than they'd be in any zoo :rolleyes:
 
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