Can We Be Entertained by Elephants in Circuses without the Animals Being Abused?

THE CIRCUS ELEPHANT IS DEPICTED AS A SYMBOL FOR THE BIG TOP, BUT SHOULD ELEPHANTS BE PUT ON DISPLAY FOR OUR ENTERTAINMENT

Elephants have been a part of circus entertainment for hundreds of years. The appearance of elephants was the highlight of circus entertainment even for the ancient Romans. Elephants show their intelligence and aptitude in amazing ways in circus shows. Circus trainers are not able to use other animals in the varied ways that elephants are used for entertainment in the circus. Groning and Saller in their elephantography book Elephants: a Cultural and Natural History say that "if an elephant has been taught by an understanding trainer and is not mistreated or overstretched it can enjoy the tricks it has learned."

The Romans used elephants in barbaric animal fights and gladiatorial bloodbaths. Ancient Romans forced elephants that they captured during war to participate in their circuses and amphitheaters. The origins of the famous Circus Maximus supposely dates back to the legendary founder of the city, Romulus. Elephants were considered weird and wonderful creatures. They added to the splendor of the processions of Romans returning as victors from the many wars fought during this time. Putting elephants on display began in 275 B.C. when four war elephants were presented to the people. Twenty years later, the Romans were able to present 100 elephants which were believed to have been captured when the Carthaginians surrendered in Sicily. During this time, elephants were given stimulants to provoke them into rage and get them to fight each other.

Spectators soon demanded more than elephants fighting each other. So starving lions and leopards were bought into the arena to fight againt the elephants. The elephants were torn to pieces by the big cats. The spectators did not want to see the elephants treated in this manner. Although Romans enjoyed seeing cruel spectacles, they considered the elephant to be a special creature. Pompey continued the practice and took it further when he made a group of African prisoners of war fight against the elephants. The prisoners used spears to kill an elephant. Elephants hurled the bodies of the prisoners into the air. Cheering crowds had no problems with seeing such cruelty. The crowds did become upset when elephants, pierced with spears, fell to their knees and trumpeted pitifully.

A Roman writer, Pliny, described seeing such incidents. He credited the elephants with more intelligence and fairness than the Roman spectators. Even during Roman times, the elephant were credited with displaying behavior similar to humans.

Fighting elephants continued to be a part of and a highlight of Roman circuses. There were duels between a gladiator and an enraged elephant for the entertainment and pleasure of the crowd.

The Romans were also the first to train the elephant for modern-looking circus entertainment with similar tricks and routines to those of today. Elephants were trained to kneel by expert guides. Dancers performed on their backs while elephants played the cymbals. Elephants were trained to sit, wearing clothes, on giant couches, eating from dishes. This was in the manner as the Romans ate during this period. The crowds delighted in seeing the elephants help themselves from dishes containing tidbits.

Elephants were forced to walk tightropes. Candelabras were were put on elephants to light the way when darkness fell. The Romans tried also to breed elephants in captivity in order to increase the number of the animals available for their use.

The use of elephants for entertainment by humans continued with the menageries of the 17th and 18th centuries where the exotic, weird and wonderful elephant had a prime role. The royal animal enclosure at Versailles had an African elephant from the Congo region from 1665 to 1681. This animal was said to drink wine and to dip bread into a bucket of delicious soup.

After feudal times, commercialized exhibition enclosures developed from the royal menageries. Elephants were kept in cramped enclosures and would be given food by visitors. The exhibitors made money from their clumsy skills when they appeared in shows.

Russia had animal tamers in the 17th century. The Czar kept a menagerie with elephants brought from Samarkand.

England took the first step toward the modern circus - combining popular entertainment with animal trainers and acrobats around 1800. This was when spectators first saw circus riders and Amazons on horseback give action-packed performances in permanent circus buildings. Soon circus buildings were a fixture in European capital cities. These circuses made money on elephants simply by exhibiting them or putting riders on their backs.

By the beginning of the 19th century, Paris had the Cirque Olympique. The Cirque Olympique had such attractions as trained deer and Baba the elephant and his routines.

Elephants were still a rarity in the early 19th century in Europe and America. An escalation in the trade of elephants occurred during the middle of the 19th century. Audiences were no longer satisfied with the elephant just making an appearance. Continental Europe started to imitate the French use of the elephant in fixed routines. During the last part of the 19th Century, German companies such as Renz and Busch had set up fixed circuses in Berlin.

An elephant called Jumbo propelled the circus into modern times as we know it today. In the mid-19th century, Jumbo made headlines in England and America. Jumbo arrived in London's Zoological Gardens in 1865. Jumbo grew up with perfect amity in the human world. Children and adults enjoyed the adventure of a ride on his back. Starting in 1881, Jumbo became moody. This was the first time that Jumbo was "in musth." The people did not know what was happening to Jumbo. Very little was known about this condition at the time. Jumbo became enraged and damaged his stall. He was no longer able to be ridden by the either children or adults. A Mr. Bartlett, the manager of the zoo, made a report to the Zoological Society's board. The report was published in "The Times." Mr. Bartlett asked the board for the resources to put Jumbo to sleep if and when it became necessary. All of London was stunned at the request.

Jumbo was saved when an offer came from Phineas Taylor Barnum, an American circus owner. Mr Barnum thought that his business would bloom if he had an animal so highly regarded by the London public. The Society saw a chance to make money from Jumbo instead of killing him, so the animal was sold to Barnum for what was considered a tremendous sum of money, 2000 pounds. The London public was outraged. They sent threatening letters to the society accusing it of behaving like a slave-trader.

Jumbo arrived in America in 1882. He was warmly welcomed by Americans. Business flourished for Barnum's circus for three years. Americans were rapturous over him just as Londoners had been. Jumbo was killed in 1885 by a tragic accident when the circus was loading up at a railroad station in St. Thomas, Ontario. Jumbo was hit by a train. A railroad official on duty had watched the circus and forgot to change the points causing a fatal collision.

P.T. Barnum sued the railroad company who had to pay $10,000 and transport the traveling circus free of charge for a year. Jumbo's skeleton was preserved and held in the Natural History Museum in New York. Jumbo probably would not have had a long life anyway. He had been in poor health before the accident refusing food and could no longer lie down. The post mortem revealed that coins, screws, leaden seals, wire, stones, pieces of glass and metal were in his stomach.

Jumbo was not the first elephant in the new world. An Asian elephant arrived in the new world in 1796. The elephant was a two-year old female named Old Bet. She was sold for $10,000 to Pepin and Brechard, two showmen, who traveled abroad with the animal. The two made a huge profit. The circus as we know it emerged from this time. Unlimited opportunities to make money off the elephant happen at this time. Americans longed for entertainment and shows as escapism. P.T. Barnum's "greatest show on earth" competed with other circuses such as Ringling in creating sensational animal acts, dangerous acrobatics, and staging heavyweight boxing matches.

Some 200 large and small circuses traveled around Europe. In the Americas, traveling circuses even reached remote places such as the Andean highlands. Argentina had 30 small and large circuses before World War 1. Brazil had around forty large companies. The trained elephant was usually one of the big draws.

Elephants were no longer a rarity. They appeared in large groups. Whole herds were supplied from the Far East and Africa. The United States was the first county to develop huge circuses with whole herds of elephants. Barnum, Bailey and Forespaugh put on a combined show in Madison Square Garden in 1887. 160 elephants were bought into the arena at once. Animal trainers were training many elephants instead of as before one or two over the years. By 1938 Karl Krone had already trained seventy elephants. The French circus Bouglione had seventy elephants in 1950. The demand for exotic animals led to an ever increasing need for a new range of tricks by the animals.

Elephants were trained to perform circus feats that thrilled the crowds. The handstand was first performed in 1853. The elephant stood and walked upright on its hind legs. Eventually, the elephant was expected to perform the one-handed "handstand." All of these feats were contrary to the nature of wild animals and put excessive demands on the body and strength of animals. Barnum toured Europe in 1900 and 1901. Pioneers in Europe adopted American circuses' technical and organizational concept, but put more quality into the performances by animal acts. Complicated spectacles and polished acrobatics were used by the Europeans. The modern circus, in which elephants played an important role, was formed.

Carl Hagenbeck made a substantial contribution to the modern circus at the end of the 19th century. Carl's father owned a small menagerie. He put on shows with and traded in animals. Carl took over the business and expanded it with the purchase of an African elephant in 1865 from the Sudan. Carl went on to buy elephants from Ceylon and shipped them around the world. His main customers were American circuses. Carl imported some 300 elephants between 1866 and 1886. In 1886, he decided to go into show business. He traveled with what he called a "Ceylonese caravan." It was one of the first animal and people shows. He had eight elephants led by Singhalese mahouts. Eventually, Carl added a training school. The school was so successful that he built the first zoological garden that had spacious open-air enclosures for the animals. Up until this time, animals had mainly been kept in cramped cages. A zoo circus was added which soon became world famous. Carl's training of the animals set new standards. He was concerned about the animal's psyche. It is thought that this concern by Hagenbeck helped to bring about the new science of behaviorism. A large traveling circus developed from the zoo circus.

Hagenbeck practiced new, gentler methods of training that he developed from his experience with wild animals. He incorporated ideas from Indian mahouts. He made use of the elephant's psyche, individuality, instincts, and responsive reactions during training. His "tame training" became the model for elephant trainers worldwide. The Hagenbeck method brought more humane treatment to the circus elephant, but not more appropriate care.

The elephant is a gregarious animal in the wild that moves about while grazing. In the circus, the elephant has to endure the nightmare of being tied up to a short chain which is something no other wild animal has to suffer. The elephant experiences the monotony of being isolated as well as being kept in a pen in tent stalls and transportation boxes. A great deal of patience is required to train an elephant resigned to its fate. The training process is lengthy. The trainer has to instill trust and establish unquestioning obedience by the elephant. Lazy and impatience trainers combined with the financial contraints placed on circuses to get the animal into the "big top" as soon as possible has contributed to the inhumane treatment of the largest of land animals.

Modern circuses use elephants differently than the Romans, but some folks would say, also in a barbaric manner. Oftentimes, elephants are bored when they are left idle. Elephants, just as you or I, suffer when idle and bored. Elephants, when forced to wear a jester's hat for public entertainment, are dignified and resigned. Most spectators are not aware, however, of the pain felt in the joints taking the weight of its colossal body when the elephant participates in acrobatic performances such as handstands. Spectators are amazed at the handstands but have no idea of the many painful hours of training which take place day after day behind closed circus doors. Elephants are usually considerate animals and extremely gentle with people. The constant psychological stress when in captivity can trigger spontaneous outbursts of anger in elephants. Elephants panic easily when they are frightened.

The list of people killed or injured by "tame elephants" goes back a long way. For every bull elephant kept in captivity, it is said that one person is killed or seriously wounded. Newspaper stories tell of the bull Hannibal killing seven people in one incident in 1824. The Berlin Zoo had its "killer bulls" towards the end of the 19th century. Ross, the cow elephant, crushed the trainer Wilhelm Philadelphia to death on the wall of her box at the Sarrasani Circus in 1921. In 1978 in Montreal, the trainer Eloise Berchtold, even though she knew that two of the bulls she had trained was "in musth" decided to perform with the bulls. Berchtold tripped and fell in front of one of the elephant's feet. The elephant knelt down pushing both tusks through her body, ripped open her stomach and hurled her body thirty-three feet across the ring. The keepers tried to stun the bull. The bull ended up being shot by the police. The list gets longer and longer each year of elephants, who are usually placid animals, rebelling against keepers, trainers, etc.

Elephants natural instincts are repressed in captivity and they live a miserable life in chains, often mistreated. Aggression then builds up. Elephants have a long memory. These wonderful animals' body size is a particular burden in captivity. They doze in boredom, miserable and stifled with their head and trunk swinging monotonously or weaving. It is said that if they were human, they would be classified as "going mad." Almost all principles of proper care were breached and continues to be breached when circuses and zoos added the elephant to their repertoire. Guidelines such as 129 square feet being sufficient living space for a circus elephant does not even allow the animal to lie down.

The question is often asked how can we reconcile our wish/need to see the animal with the needs of the animal. It depends on what our concept is on the use of animals. There are two main concepts/perspectives on the use of animals: animal welfare and animal rights.

We want to see elephants, but most of us cannot afford to take a safari to see them in their natural habitat. Should we have the opportunity to see them in zoos or circuses? I suppose your answer would depend on which of the concepts/perspectives you advocate.

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