My comment to the Richmond VA Times Dispatch. I will shorten this and send email messages to the Richmond city council members TODAY. Tonight is a council meeting to deal with a proposal to ban the use of the elephant guide, which will prevent the circus from entertaining any Richmond families ever again. Along this line, here is my comment on the Richmond VA article about banning the elephant guide, where the Usual Suspects were spouting their hateful rhetoric (sorry for the length, I plan to shorten it and send to the Richmond city council members, and possibly link to the carriage horse ban as an example of this hate movement): Thank you, Janice Aria! Disclaimer: I had the great pleasure of meeting Jan just a week ago in Orlando. She is a delightful person, full of fun and enthusiasm for her beloved elephants, a devoted animal lover. Does that make me biased? No. As an animal trainer myself, I can tell when someone is as devoted to the welfare of animals as I am - that passion cant be faked. I see that there are a few misinformed and willfully ignorant people posting on this page. Lets set the record straight: Animal Rights is a movement thats goal is to destroy ALL human relationships with animals. They have little to no experience with the care of animals beyond household pets, yet they loudly and obnoxiously claim that the dedicated and loving people who choose to build their lives entirely around the care and welfare of many animal species are doing this purposely to hurt, torture and abuse these animals. Really? Does that make any sense, people?! These folks live and work with animals on a daily basis, they study for advanced degrees and add years of continuing education in every possible advancement of knowledge of the animal world, so please give some thought to what you imagine is behind this destructive Animal Rights movement. It is not about the welfare of animals. It is about extinction of domestic and domesticated animals. (I doubt these fools even know the difference in those two terms?). The elimination of animals? NO, you cry, that cant possibly be true! But it is, and sadly, the leadership of these AR groups are adroit at manipulating naive people with sophisticated attack campaigns that single out a few bad actors (name a profession where everyone is a saint) and use rare incidents to convince the public that everyone who works with animals is bad, and without any frame of reference, many people believe them. What the public doesnt always understand is that animals cant be trained to perform complicated behaviors on cue with force, intimidation or pain. Animals that are abused or threatened will shut down, run away, or attack in defense, and they will never trust people, and CERTAINLY will not be safe around people. I have trained search and detection dogs for nearly 20 years - there is no way that our dogs would be useful if they were afraid of punishment and didnt trust their handlers. So, although some of these uneducated comments are made by well meaning people, they are truly misguided. They may personally believe that animals should not be used for entertainment - fine, no one is forcing them to buy tickets to the circus. They have the choice to not eat meat, or own pets, or go to the zoo. But they should understand that every single day they live and breath, they are able to do so because of the relationships that humans have had with animals for many thousands of generations, back to hunter gatherers and early agriculture. The entertainment they claim to abhor is what funds education and research that benefits all living species on the planet in one way or another. Just how do these AR groups plan to eliminate our pets, our zoos, fishing, hunting, farming and ranching, biomedical research, service animals and the circus? The public would never agree to these goals - if they public were aware of them. These groups will accomplish these goals by chipping away at the edges of these enterprises, and attacking the tools that make our relationships work is one method. Banning the elephant guide, for example, the tool that is analogous to the leashes and collars on our pets and the halter and bridle on horses, banning tethering of animals is the same concept. Get rid of the tools, and get rid of the animals. Plain and simple. Check out these two videos (after the ads, sorry). The first one is made by a train enthusiast, has no ax to grind with animal enterprise. Is not biased one way or the other. Please skip to Minute 5:10 or so to see what is called the elephant walk, takes place in Hershey PA, taking the horses and the elephants from the train tracks to the arena, through public streets. Watch the handler manage these enormous beasts SAFELY through town with this simple tool (which is blunt, not sharp, Ive handled one). Training is superb, and these elephants are safe to move through town because they TRUST THEIR HANDLERS - if they were fearful or angry, just imagine . . . https://youtube/watch?v=yN-iJvW-uAg Heres one made by a circus fan, an elephant lover. https://youtube/watch?v=-7XJwqWYrEg And sadly, watch this one. Sadly because it will probably never happen again, since LA County banned the use of the elephant guide, and Orange Co. borders LA Co. Listen to the kids. ocregister/.../27203.../elephants-irvine-news
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 16:19:18 +0000
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