Sometimes, the proverbial elephant isn't in the middle of the room. It's in the middle of your email.
A month or so ago, I wrote a story about the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus appearing in Fort Smith. I really hadn't wanted to stir the pot about elephants, considering the circus is taking all its elephants off the road by 2018. But I got the chance to interview Janice Aria, who is director of animal stewardship for the 145-year-old company and a passionate elephant lover. We talked for almost an hour -- having been scheduled for 15 minutes -- and I left the conversation convinced that Aria has the best interests of the animals at heart -- not just elephants but horses and dogs, too.
To me, the best example was Mysore, an elephant Aria has known for 43 years. Mysore -- named after a town in India -- arrived in America when she was somewhere between 2 and 5 years old. Like any elephant in the wild, Aria told me, she had competed to survive in an ever-shrinking habitat where villagers shoot at elephants to run them out of their fields and the elephants, who pull vegetation up by the roots, constantly have to move on in search of food.
"The minute she joined the circus, she became a goddess," Aria said. "She had a name. She had a place in the barn. She had a routine that was hers. They can say what they will against captivity, but I am thrilled she lived this life."
Mysore is now at least 69 years old. Her hay and oats are ground up for her every day and supplemented with honey so she can eat, because she has lost the last of the six sets of teeth that elephants have over the course of their lifetimes.
"In the wild, she would starve," Aria said simply. "But we make a birth-to-grave commitment."
The story ran May 29.
The email from PETA came June 1.
In it, Katie Arth, a media liaison for the organization, said the circus routinely abuses and injures its elephants -- all of them, both on the road and at the Center for Conservation.
I turned to Stephen Payne, vice president of Feld Entertainment -- which owns the circus -- to answer the charges.
First, he addressed a handling tool called a bullhook, which PETA says are "sharp metal weapons that resemble fireplace pokers and are used to beat elephants into submission."
Here's what Payne says:
"Bullhooks are approved and accepted as the most humane tool for working with elephants. That's not just our position but the position of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regulates and inspects circuses in the U.S., the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Elephant Managers Association, a professional association of people ... who work with and care for elephants. At Ringling Bros. only highly experienced, trained professionals ever actually use a bullhook, and it is only as a back-up to a verbal cue for an elephant (and if you want to tap an elephant on the shoulder, it helps to have an extension of your arm to reach, say 10 feet in the air, to do so)."
And on the topic of conservation, which PETA charges is not at all important to Ringling Bros., here's what Payne says:
"This may be their most factually incorrect section in this email. We do a lot of work with zoos and other conservation organizations around the U.S. We also have an extensive program in Sri Lanka (elephantcenter.com/ringling-bros-commitment/sri-lanka-programs/) to assist that country in elephant care and conservation. We most recently renovated the veterinary clinic at a facility that cares for orphaned and injured elephants. Regarding our herd, most of them were born or have lived around humans their entire lives. Returning them to a range country is not possible; they would not survive.
"As an organization, Ringling Bros. has been working with and caring for elephants for 145 years. ... We stand by our animal care and the motto we adopted for the Center for Elephant Conservation: 'Extinction? Not if we can help it.'"
Now, here's what I have to say.
I don't know anything about elephants. But I grew up on a farm. And only an idiot abuses or damages the animals that make his farm productive. Why in the world would the circus abuse the animal for which it is best known and revered?
Further, an adult Asian elephant weighs up to 11,000 pounds -- way more than your average 1,800-pound smart car. There's no way a human could make an elephant do anything it didn't want to do. Have you ever tried to make a 1,200 pound bull do anything?
I love elephants. I have loved them all my life. Do I wish they could all live in 30-mile habitats with plenty to eat and fresh water? Of course. But Mr. Payne is right: These elephants can't "go home," because this circus and this job is all they know. It'd be like taking your domestic cat to the edge of the wilderness and waving goodbye.
And as far as I'm concerned, PETA would do way more good trying to help the 7.6 million companion animals abandoned to shelters in this country every year. Or the pitiable pets maimed or killed just for fun by sadistic owners.
And now, I'll wait for the second email.
Becca Martin-Brown is an award-winning columnist and Features editor for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email her at [email protected].
NAN Our Town on 07/02/2015