I'm not a vet. But I am an animal lover, I have kept many pets over the years
and I know a lot of "horsey" people.

Animals in a domesticated or working environment are very sensitive to their
environments. They are emotional, heirarchical family creatures that get used
to their environment. Moving an animal from it's family is a distressing and
disturbing thing to do. Animals regard humans as part of their family under
these conditions.

Sticking an old animal in a sanctuary is actually a polite way of getting rid of
an animal that has served it's purpose. Of course it's better than making glue
out of them, but it is still quite cruel.

Keeping a pet and keeping a working animal are not a million miles apart. It
would be far easier for Roberts Circus to have the elephant put to sleep or put
to pasture to keep critics off their back. But instead I think they are
genuinely fond of their elephant and are looking after it and I expect it is
happier with them than suddenly finding itself in a field with a strange goat
and a horse for company.

Yes a certain bitch called Chipperfield was a monster to her animals but that
doesn't mean all circus animals are beaten.

Animal welfare is an issue. Banning animals from circus's is not in my opinion
the best way of looking after them. However, the guilty bastards that mistreat
animals should be banned from keeping animals. Farms are far worse than
circuses.

However, this debate should rage on and animal husbandes should be challenged.

Jonathan




----- Original Message -----
From: Glyn Hanton
To: uk_jugglers@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 1:38 PM
Subject: Re: [uk_jugglers] Re: Bobby Roberts circus


cheers for that charlie

I did find it just afterwards. I was actually after info about that
circus in general though although obviously I'm interested in the
elephant. My understanding is that the elephant is not 'working'
anymore, but is moved around with the circus and used for photo opps.
Bobby Roberts website claims that a bunch of vets have claimed the
elephant is in the best place for it. CAPS have claimed that a bunch of
vets have claimed that she should be retired to a 'sanctuary'. I'm not a
vet, I don't know.

I was hoping someone else had looked into this in depth, and not just
taking the word of the people in question. Lets face it, they're not
going to say "actually we train our animals with 10 foot spikes and hand
grenades" on their own web site. (I've no idea how the circus in
question trains their animals) .... but given that the elephant was
brought into the country 50 years it _probably was trained with hooks
and the like - times change - that's not really relevant now.

I'm more interesting in how the sort of people who would possibly have
considered it ok to treat an elephant like that 50 years ago will have
moved on in the following years. Is their publicity statement just more
'circus' (they also claim to have some of the circus worlds most famous
performers - who else has heard of these guys before?).

so yeh, the original question still stands, has anyone got any more info
... I'm still digging, but views on both sides seem to be quite polarised.

Charlie Hull wrote:
> Well, Google found this in about 10 seconds:
> http://www.bobby-roberts.co.uk/anne-statement.htm
>
> which seems to indicate that the elephant hasn't performed in years, but
> is probably in the best place for it at the moment.
>
> Surprised you didn't find this, Glyn!
>
> Charlie
>
>> cheers,
>>
>>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
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--
Glyn
Loaded Dice Design and Media
www.loadeddice.co.uk

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