Just last year, an elephant named Viola escaped from her handlers at a circus traveling through Butte, Montana. Before handlers with bullhooks—sharp, steel-tipped weapons designed to sink into an elephant’s flesh and inflict pain to get the animals to obey commands during training and performances—chased her down and returned her to the circus, she roamed through traffic and neighborhoods. At one point, it was reported, she paused to stand on someone’s lawn. It’s as if she knew the moment of freedom would be brief, and she paused to savor it. It was at least the third time Viola escaped from the circus.
Viola is on my mind once again, as our Indiana state director brought to my attention that bullhook-wielding handlers forced Viola and another elephant named Kelly to perform at the Murat Shrine Circus in Indianapolis. We have video proof. The elephants were supplied by the Oklahoma-based Carson & Barnes Circus.
Samantha Chapman/Humane World for Animals
The presence of bullhooks was in apparent defiance of a local ordinance prohibiting the use or threatened use of devices which will cause or have the potential to cause physical injury or suffering to animals.
Upon witnessing this apparent violation of the Indianapolis-Marion County code, our Humane World for Animals staff immediately contacted local law enforcement, providing footage and urging an investigation.
Debby Leahy/Humane World for Animals
This is the least we can do for Viola and Kelly, who have endured lives of suffering after having been captured in the wild as babies. In the wild, elephants are closely bonded with members of their families, and they may roam many miles in a single day. An elephant’s life in the circus is nothing of the sort. They’re instead deprived of anything that is important to them, so they can cower in fear as they perform for the fleeting applause of a crowd. Viola and Kelly are elderly, like all elephants used for circuses in the U.S., most of whom appear to struggle from arthritis and other issues likely due to age and decades of confinement. Like Viola, Kelly has repeatedly escaped from the circus.
Circuses have succeeded and thrived without using live animals, as proven by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Cirque du Soleil and UniverSoul Circus. But Carson & Barnes is among over a dozen circuses and operators that still tour the U.S. with wild animals, who are forced to perform tricks out of fear of the painful consequences of refusal. This is absolutely no way to treat animals.
To ensure animals are not being abused for “entertainment,” the Indianapolis City-County Council should prohibit traveling wild animal acts altogether. And we urge the Murat Shriners to transform their show into one that does not profit from the pain and suffering of wild animals like Viola and Kelly, who have already had their lives stolen from them.
