I don’t intend to hijack this thread. But since we’re discussing animals in entertainment, here are a few things I’ve picked up:
In my experience, folks with animal acts say that tigers, elephants, and such can be “trained” but not “tamed”. One tiger handler told me that he never turns his back (mentally) on a tiger. He loves them, cares for them, but never forgets that they can be dangerous under certain circumstances despite their training.
But having said that, the same person also believed that the animals generally enjoy human companionship, and working with humans. From my observations, I would agree with this statement.
I asked another trainer about abuse. He said two interesting things about this. First he said that if he abused his animals in any way, he probably wouldn’t live through a dozen shows. Second, he pointed out that his animals were how he made his living. Why would he abuse them? He compared it to a race car driver taking a sledgehammer to his car.
Elephants are very interesting. As has been pointed out in this thread, it’s pretty amazing that we can get them to do anything at all! I once made this very observation to an elephant trainer. He told me that with an animal of that size, there’s very little we could convice these animals to do if it didn’t really want to do it.
And again, my observations over the years bear this out. I’ve often seen what appears to be affection between the elephants and their humans, much in the same way I see it between dog owners and their companions.
Quick story: I once took my wife to the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI. They did an elephant act demonstration during the day before the big performance. The family that ran the elephant act would bring the three big bulls out to a bleacher area to show the training techniques, then give the audience a chance to touch them (the elephants, not the family).
As they brought out the elephants, my wife saw that the family’s 5 year old boy was part of the act. He was darting in and out of the animals’ path as they walked and helping direct them. My wife said she was worried about that. I told her not to worry - these family acts know their business.
During the demo the father explained that one of the first things they teach the elephants is to lift a leg when prompted. He then had his son tap the an elephant on its ankles. The kid was using a thin stick and apparently did it too hard for the dad’s liking. He yelled at the kid, “Hey Louie, take it easy!”
I said to my wife, “See - he’s telling a 5-year old kid not to be so rough with that elephant!” It was clear they weren’t worried about the kid getting hurt. My wife couldn’t stop laughing about it.
Afterward they invited the audience to come touch one of the elephants. Even though I’ve been around these acts periodically, I was astounded as I watched the elephant stand patiently while kids and parents came up to touch it. Truly incredible. It showed an incredible amount of trust between the trainers and the elephant that they could permit such a situation with no fear.
I won’t attempt to debate the ethics of performing animals. But I will say that my experience with the animals’ treatment and well being has been overwhelmingly positive. There will always be isolated exceptions, but I’m convinced that these animals are treated well, and on some level seem to enjoy working with humans.
