Elephant in blackpool s.c?

booboo88

tis quite frightening really,considering so many people go to blackpool


http://www.thejournal.ie/video-nellie-the-elephant-makes-a-run-for-it-in-cork-398870-Mar2012/

Flesh Gorden

It's a cruel way of getting some free publicity

wheresmybeaver

Flesh Gorden wrote: »

It's a cruel way of getting some free publicity

Yeah it seems that the elephants "accidently" escape very very often from certain circuses.

All it's doing now is reopening the debate about the relevance of the circus in modern society (well, circuses with animals anyway).

gimmick

Flesh Gorden wrote: »

It's a cruel way of getting some free publicity

I have seen a few people saying this in relation to youtube videos and facebook posts etc. How is it cruel? Surely the elephant is better off rambling around rather than being chained up in some confined space all day long?

It is shameless publicity, and could have been dangerous as it looked like the elephant could have stamped on a car or anything.

I was down in Blackpool shopping centre yesterday. Would have loved to have seen him.

Flesh Gorden

gimmick wrote: »

How is it cruel? Surely the elephant is better off rambling around rather than being chained up in some confined space all day long?

That's a fairly dumb comment, it was a car park and then a busy junction, not an empty field where it would be in a calm environment.

Unnecessary stress is cruelty - an elephant would have no idea of what's going on around it in that situation shown in the video
and must have been extremely stressed when they had no control over it and couldn't stop it from heading out onto the junction.

wispyman

The top rated comment on the YouTube video is:

"Give her some pyjamas and she'd fit in well with the rest of the elephants that hang around up there!"

Not my words now - but LOL!!

gimmick

Flesh Gorden wrote: »

That's a fairly dumb comment, it was a car park and then a busy junction, not an empty field where it would be in a calm environment.

Unnecessary stress is cruelty - an elephant would have no idea of what's going on around it in that situation shown in the video
and must have been extremely stressed when they had no control over it and couldn't stop it from heading out onto the junction.

OK

The_Banker

I was never a fan of circus. Its cruel to animals to keep them confined.

Clowns are just failed comedians and the ringmaster is just a poor mans Bruce Forsythe.

Overpriced popcorn and candyfloss.

Anne the Elephant was liberated from a circus in the UK last year after videos appeared of her being mistreated. She was the last elephant in a UK circus. WHY is there no lobby group to rid our circuses of large animals? If there is one, where can I sign up? Let them keep their cute ponies and dogs who run around doing tricks and jumps, but I remember seeing the animals "backstage" (for another pound or so) as a kid, camels and lions in cages barely big enough to hold them.

I have for a long time been active in attempting to end the captive orcas; Seaworld and other parks keeping orcas; someone asked me why I wasn't campaigning for larger animals like elephants too. Well, I am now. I either need to find a movement to join, or I'll start one myself. Elephants are animals that do work for people, out of goodness, but their good nature can not be taken advantage of the way it is. Raaaaaaaah Sorry, I am very passionate about this sort of thing.

grenache

It happened in the Retail Park, not the SC.

Manach

Given the destruction of their habitat in the wild, at least in captivity even in such conditions, allows people to interact with them in a manner which begins a emotional bond - much more so that the variety of Animal planet shows on TV.

langdang

wheresmybeaver wrote: »

Yeah it seems that the elephants "accidently" escape very very often from certain circuses.

All it's doing now is reopening the debate about the relevance of the circus in modern society (well, circuses with animals anyway).

Is it the same circus as the llamas on the M50 and kangaroos in a nightclub crowd?

gimmick

That Kangaroo was a different type of thing altogether.

It didn't "escape", it was available for hire.

booboo88

grenache wrote: »

It happened in the Retail Park, not the SC.

Which is part of the shopping centre, so whats your point?

Diabhalta

wispyman wrote: »

The top rated comment on the YouTube video is:

"Give her some pyjamas and she'd fit in well with the rest of the elephants that hang around up there!"

Not my words now - but LOL!!

same with tracksuit pants and random jersey... some Toyota and grey pants would be very funny...

miss_shadow

Manach wrote: »

Given the destruction of their habitat in the wild, at least in captivity even in such conditions, allows people to interact with them in a manner which begins a emotional bond - much more so that the variety of Animal planet shows on TV.

So that's your reasoning? who are we to lock up animals and make them perform for us and 'emotional bond' ... how very selfish!

Volovo

A wildlife park with large animals etc. would be more appropriate for seeing exotic animals up close. Not a zoo, but something with more freedom for the animals.

I thought the days of the circus were over. As said by another poster, failed comedians, overpriced candy floss gunk, cruelty to animals etc.!

gbee

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0331/man-injured-by-elephant-at-cork-circus.html

Squashed keeper anyone!

mawk

gbee wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0331/man-injured-by-elephant-at-cork-circus.html

Squashed keeper anyone!

beat me to it.

bad week for the circus..

wispyman

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0401/man-injured-by-elephant-in-cork-now-critical.html

Looks like the guy might die :-( This will be a good time for pressure groups to speak up.

Elephants in the zoo I can feel uneasy about but wont get too uptight about - these animals are often traded between zoos to keep the gene pool clean with view to sending calves to parks to be raised for release.

But elephants in circuses are for one thing only and that is to perform for profit. I am very much saddened by this attack on the keeper, just as I was when the bull orca Tillikum killed a trainer in 2010; these are large, wild animals being kept outside of any hint of a natural enviroment and they are going to react sooner or later - they are intelligent creatures. Let the circuses keep their performing dogs and Shetland ponies, but for larger animals a life in the circus is a hard one and totally inhumane.

I do hope he pulls through; but I also hope this will cause people to look at this practice and denounce it, like Anne the Elephant from the UK circus who is now retired in Longleats.

Let's not hate on the elephants!

http://www.rathergood.com/elephants

mikeym

The guy who was on Neil Prendervilles show this morning would want to get a life.

I think this whole elephant mistreatment is blown out of proportion.

corkonion

These elephants have been born in captivity and could not be released. Also banning animals from a circus would see the end of circuses in Ireland, our population is too small to support circuses without the attraction of trained animals. Most people calling for them to be banned are hypocrites as they bring their own kids to these shows when they are in town. If animal cruelty bothers you so much, go vegan, stop eating animals being slaughtered for your taste buds, and get on your high horses to end hunting and fishing as a sport.

gbee

corkonion wrote: »

go vegan, stop eating animals being slaughtered for your taste buds, and

And shoe [leather] [I know after the animal is dead but still] and perfume as parts go into it, it's amazing how much dead animal product permeates our lives, it's actually impossible to be vegan

sok2005

I would NEVER bring my kids to a circus containing animals. My mother was of the same view so I never went to one. If you actually seen the way these majestic animals are treated you would probably think the same. In the circus elephants are beaten, hit, poked, prodded, and jabbed with sharp hooks sometimes causing bleeding and worse for their entire life, that is completely different to eating a hamburger or the odd sausage imo! I wouldnt expect the pig or cow to be subjected to years of abuse before it's slaughtered for food!

Roar

Deleted User wrote: »

Let's not hate on the elephants!

http://www.rathergood.com/elephants

this is absolutely fantastic!

evilivor

corkonion wrote: »

If animal cruelty bothers you so much, go vegan, stop eating animals being slaughtered for your taste buds, and get on your high horses to end hunting and fishing as a sport.

That's cruel to high horses…

As a life long horse rider I can assure you that I never, ever went on a hunt; my dad has a gun license and fishing license, he never actually shoots anything, we call it "going for a glorified walk", he mostly does as the rest of the gun club does, patrols the reserve to make sure people aren't out hunting there; and the river he fishes on is catch and release only anyway.

I never suggested releasing these elephants! Retiring them to suitable areas yes, release I know is totally out of the question. The elephants retired from English circuses wound up in wildlife parks. Considering the two eldery elephants from Dublin Zoo wound up in a zoo in Germany this wouldn't be a huge undertaking.

I don't see why the end of circuses would be such a bad thing, considering people go there to see animals, who are confined, which is mistreatment.

If I owned a dog, and kept it in my shed, and let it run around the garden twice a day, then locked it in the shed again for the night, that would be cruelty. Especially if my garden was (for scale purposes) about 2 metres square. So I don't see why it's ok to keep elephants the way the circuses do. I have said let them keep their little ponies and their dogs and whatever domestic animals they have; but lions and elephants have no place in a circus anymore. Go to Fota, or the zoo, and look at them there. I haven't been to a circus since 1991, and I only recall them being boring events anyway.

Yeah you can call me a hypocrite for being an omnivore who keeps two budgies (although they can come out of their cage if they want, when the window is shut) and a pet cat, who also eats kibble, I would probably wear leather if I could afford it, I'm not against the slaughter of animals, I'm against the cruel conditions that some animals are being forced to live in. I am aware that some slaughter houses have been exposed for mistreating the animals leading up to slaughter, thankfully not in Ireland. I do avoid battery hens, and their eggs, only eat free range (thank you Hugh Fernley Whittingstall) and vehemently avoid any place that sells or serves veal.

To say that "If you object to an elephant being kept by a circus you have to be a vegan" is just extreme, and I think you know it is.

pwurple

The poor elephant looked terrified in those clips, and was being poked with electric rods to get it under control.

What was more weird, was the idiots running towards it trying to get a look. What kind of moron runs TOWARDS an escaped elephant. An elephant only has to step on you, or lean in your direction and you are stone dead.

To budgese... I don't fullly understood the issue people have with free-range well treated veal. I know it doesn't taste of much, so from a culinary perspective I'm not a fan, but what's the ethical dilema? Veal is from male calves born to a dairy herd? They don't produce milk obviously, as they are male, and are not a beef breed (like angus or hereford). So they have no place in dairy or beef production. I'd prefer the farmed animal would not go to waste. So surely having it go for veal and leather is better than going unused into a landfill? How is lamb different to veal?

I know there were places found to be mistreating the animals on their farms (In the US, not here) by housing the calves in godawful conditions, but surely the boycott should be of those farms. I don't boycott all freerange eggs or a place that sells quiche because battery hens exist somewhere in the world.

Thanks pwurple! I have to admit I was totally uneducated as to what veal really was. I agree that using the unnecessary-for-dairy bullocks for food and leather is great as long as they are humanely killed, which in this country they generally are. I was under the dumb media fuelled impression that veal was calves raised in a shed in the dark not allowed to move I usually don't fall for that crap, I guess it was ingrained from an early age and I never rethought it. I'm glad you cleared it up! I think I'll just boycott it anyway since you told me it's not so great!

the beer revolu

Deleted User wrote: »

I was under the dumb media fuelled impression that veal was calves raised in a shed in the dark not allowed to move I usually

Most of the veal available in Ireland is of French origin and is reared like you said above.

British veal is different.

Don't think there is much Irish veal produced.

the beer revolu

corkonion wrote: »

Most people calling for them to be banned are hypocrites as they bring their own kids to these shows when they are in town.

I'd like to see you back up that ridiculous statement!

shivdaspiv

Did anyone go to the protest last Sat in Blackpool? I read in the paper there was going to be one, unfortunately i wasn't able to come to the City for it.
I an curious as to how it went...

corkonion

shivdaspiv wrote: »

Did anyone go to the protest last Sat in Blackpool? I read in the paper there was going to be one, unfortunately i wasn't able to come to the City for it.
I an curious as to how it went...

It seems to have gone well, just the one protester, but he seemed to be enjoying the attention.

gbee

corkonion wrote: »

It seems to have gone well, just the one protester, but he seemed to be enjoying the attention.

According to the interview on Neil Prenderville's show, the protester also had a dog with him. So that's two, sort of, a big crowd by Cork's protest standards TBH.

It's Limerick's problem now, and with their bulldozing of their problems under the soil, a tiny circus and a small herd of elephants ~ we'll never hear from them again. I suspect.

Unless they are sent to live in Knocknaheeny, or Togher or Mahon!!!!!!!!!!!!!

shivdaspiv

shivdaspiv wrote: »

Did anyone go to the protest last Sat in Blackpool? I read in the paper there was going to be one, unfortunately i wasn't able to come to the City for it.
I an curious as to how it went...

No, and there is a protest this Saturday in Castlebar too. Unfortunately that's further than I can convince my boyfriend to drive. But when the protests, and circuses move east, me and my friend (and her daughter, dragged along and looking embarrassed) will be there.

I am glad other people on this thread are feeling the same about these animals.