Ringling Bros. Battles to Keep Elephants (Fighting animal rights advocates)

The Las Vegas Sun ^ | June 3, 2006 | David Crary , AP

[CedarDave]

"Our circus brings them to areas where people don't see such animals very often. That's not something we should deprive our future generations of."

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Ugh. I have never liked the circus. No more elephants. Kids can see them in nature preserves or now video , dvd's. the time is over for this travesty and cruelty!

[kinoxi]

Yes, release them back into the wild where they will be promptly slaughtered.

[Paleo Conservative]

I don't think elephants versus animal rights activists is a fair fight, but it would be fun to watch.

[ThreePuttinDude]

So you feel its OK for kids to only know these majestic
animals as only a picture, or a scene on a screen?

I have to disagree with you on this one. With all of the
permitting and inspections these animals get, they are
taken care of better than a Lib in NYC.

[CedarDave]

Messed up my comment -- agree that it would be unfortunate for young and old to be deprived of seeing elephants up close. Heck, when we were children, we were given rides on their backs (don't think that's the case today due to liability issues).

What's crazy about the lawsuit is that RB's use of animals bred and raised in the US is being challenged because of loss of habitat overseas.

[kinoxi]

Need to bring your own see through covering for when one of the greenies gets smashed, and a fully stocked cooler.
:)

[Mercat]

I'm okay with them keeping the elephants but can they please get rid of the clowns?

[ThreePuttinDude]

.....but can they please get rid of the clowns?

I know, they are scary as heck......8^D

[Paleo Conservative]

Kind of like a Gallagher show?

[LasVegasMac]

Ugh. I have never liked the circus. No more elephants. Kids can see them in nature preserves or now video , dvd's. the time is over for this travesty and cruelty!

Still working on that recovery, eh?

[CedarDave]

Yes, release them back into the wild where they will be promptly slaughtered.

A couple of additional facts that I did not include in the excerpt:

• Annual attendance at Ringling's circuses is more than 10 million, and audience surveys rate elephants as by far the favorite attraction.
• Of Ringling's 55 elephants, up to 20 are touring at any one time in the three circus units. Most of the others live at Ringling's Center for Elephant Conservation, a $5 million, 200-acre facility in central Florida that doubles as retirement home and breeding center.

It would seem they have a better life at the breeding facility than on the Asian subcontinent where competition for land between man and elephants ends up with the elephant as the loser.

[CedarDave]

I'm okay with them keeping the elephants but can they please get rid of the clowns?

Yeah, we see enough of them in Washington...

[kinoxi]

Yeah, except the actual fruit is replaced with 'virtual fruit' ...the lefties, and the mallet is replaced by a pachyderm's pissed off hoof.
:)

[SauronOfMordor]

Heck, when we were children, we were given rides on their backs (don't think that's the case today due to liability issues).

About 8 years ago, my daughter and I got a ride on an elephant at a small circus in Florida (she needed daddy to ride with her)

[sono]

Gawd ... what's next? No clowns?

[FlingWingFlyer]

...but can they please get rid of the clowns?

As long as the limousine Liberals continue funding them, we'll never get rid of the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Animal Welfare Institute.

Next up in the "court" barrel. Rodeos!

[rbg81]

This is a perfect example of how these activist groups are using the courts to destroy our traditions, restrict our freedoms, and generally turn America into a tepid bowl of mush.

[Mercat]

I can only wonder whether clowns are an ancient tradition of devil worship, seriously - clowns in some cultures represent a portal to the world of the dead. People like to turn what they fear into something to ridicule. I think that it is this human impulse which has created clowns and which makes them so scary... sort of a reverse scary.

[Caramelgal]

I’m with you on this one. Clowns freak me out man. Never trust someone wearing a painted on smile. Don’t care much for mimes or monkeys either.