Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will phase out the circus’ iconic elephants from its shows by 2018. (Associated Press file)
Re: “Ringling Bros. elephant decision shows need for legal protection for animals,” March 15 Perspective article.
I am so grateful to witness the growing consciousness of the rights of animals, and thanks to Natalie Prosin for a sensitive article about the horrors endured by circus elephants. Whatever one wants to call them, animals are living, feeling beings.
One only need to remember that there was a time when women were considered property (still a fact in parts of the world), and people of a certain color “belonged” to an owner. At last, we are beginning to recognize that, like children, animals have rights, too. I’ve shuddered over the years at the treatment of animals by the movie industry, which has inflicted unspeakable cruelty upon horses in Westerns and “epics.”
Letap continue to enjoy free animals in a natural habitat. And, as owner-guardians, letap give our own pets the love and care that all family members deserve. Always report animal abuse; never tolerate it.
Anne Culver,Denver
This letter was published in the March 22 edition.Apparently the evil of the “elephant Conga line” is in the eye of the beholder. Where Natalie Prosin sees degradation to the dignity of elephants, I see inter-species communication and harmony, a moment of grace that runs deeper than performing tricks, down through the millennia, to the first human who befriended an elephant and asked him to help with the heavy lifting.
I believe itap impossible to abuse and coerce a herd of elephants into performing, at liberty and in harmony, under the big top. That elephants are “cognitively complex and social” probably means these performers actively enjoy the appreciation of their audiences.
It seems wacky to me that Prosin and her “common law” mob believe they own a patent on how to love elephants, or that “common law” non-owners should claim totalitarian control over mankind’s relationship to the elephant.
Theresa Stephen,Lakewood
This letter was published in the March 22 edition.
