I have purposely avoided any reference to the reasons behind elephant rampages to avoid being characterized as an extremist who wishes to outlaw pet ownership. The elephant is by nature a gentle, benevolent, socially responsible animal, intelligent and complex. In the circus, elephants are reduced to performing robots who simply wish to escape a life of confinement and deprivation. The process to which they referred involved taking baby elephants who were less than two years old and restraining them by ropes to keep them away from their mothers. Baby elephants in the wild live in a community of love and female elephants stay with their mothers and the herd for life.
Males stay with their mothers for at least eight years.
Obviously, this callous treatment of an innocent baby will tend to produce an elephant who has some resentment toward humans and a desire to escape. Two of the ten elephants born at the Ringling breeding facility have died while traveling with the circus. The data which we have presented is the tip of the iceberg. It is virtually impossible to track elephants, elephant trainers and circus owners as they move from the United States to Canada, Mexico and Europe. Wealthier circuses travel to other countries scouting for elephant acts and new animal trainers.