I came downstairs to blog about some mindless daily activities today (which I’ll get to later), but then I came across some posts on my CLM board about the elephant that "visits" the local apple/cider farm. My friend Zoe does not let her kids ride the elephant and she has voiced before that she has issues with the elephant there.
I haven’t asked her WHY exactly, but why would you guess? Did she see the elephant act aggressively? Is she a germaphobe? Does she dislike her kids smelling like caged elephant? Without asking her, I can still bet that those are not the reasons.
I remember awhile ago thinking about how I wanted to find out exactly how inhumane it was to have animals in the zoo, and in doing research on that topic I came across some devastating videos and websites about circus elephants. Videos that made me bawl my eyes out watching these majestic creatures tortured, beaten and living lives in chains and boxes, bored out of their minds. After watching these videos, it is very safe to say my children will NEVER visit a circus and when they are old enough I will expose them to the reasons WHY they won’t be allowed to visit the circus. It is absolutely sickening.
I watched this video this morning and, in the beginning I thought "GO! Good for you, elephant, good for you for not taking it anymore. Good for you for sticking up for yourself and not taking that abuse anymore." I silently hoped that the animal handlers were seriously hurt. And then I watched as this poor elephant is gunned down in the street, and shot over and over and over and over, screaming in confusion and pain, until he collapses into a car and dies.
There is just far too much information for me to even begin to post here about. I found a great site, Circuses.com, that has many videos and a lot of information on what REALLY goes on behind the scenes.
nicolebarczak.com 
oh my GOODNESS. I just went to that Circuses website and was in tears watching the abuse videos. But… knowledge is power, right? Every person that refuses to support these circuses helps!
OH MY GAWD!!! This made me kinda queasy watching it! That is totally insane and I really had no idea this was going on. I feel horrible for those elephants and home those men get what they deserve. But we know that there are a lot of other people that “train” this same way. That’s just sick, but a good eye opener!
While those were all good reasons…it was of course the latter. We are a no circus, no elephant riding family. Thanks for sharing that info on your blog. Maybe if people stop making money off these amazing creatures they will be allowed to go to a sanctuary.