Fulton bans elephant bullhooks used by circuses, but Atlanta not included
Buckhead resident Anna Ware told Fulton County commissioners the debate over whether elephant bullhooks are training tools or instruments of terror was settled when she tried to bring one into their building Wednesday morning.
Security guards seized it as a weapon, and a police detective had to carry it into chambers so she could show what one looks like -- an instrument shaped like a fire poker, topped with a steel claw with two sharpened tips.
The point wasn't lost on the commission, which voted 4-1 to ban the use of bullhooks by circus elephant trainers. Fulton became the first Georgia jurisdiction to approve such a measure, following cities and counties in Florida, South Carolina, New York, Kentucky and Indiana.
The rule only covers unincorporated south Fulton, as that's the area the commission has direct governance over. It will not keep bullhooks out of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus' shows at Philips Arena in Atlanta.
Animal advocates said Atlanta will be their next battleground, as well as Gwinnett and DeKalb counties.
"I see this as setting precedent and a stepping stone," said Ware, an Atlanta Humane Society executive board member.
It was the third time Commissioner Robb Pitts brought the issue forward, and he finally got his fourth vote from new Commissioner Joan Garner.
Twenty-two people spoke out Wednesday. A dozen of them opposing the ban were mostly employees or business associates of Feld Entertainment, which owns Ringling Brothers. On the other side were representatives of animal rights groups, carrying placards reading "Be an Elefriend" and a banner that said, "Circus Elephants Never Forget Beatings."
The commission also received a letter from actress Demi Moore, which cited findings by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that circus workers sink bullhooks into elephants' flesh and twist them until they scream in pain.
Thomas Albert, Feld Entertainment's vice president of government relations, characterized bullhooks as "guides" and "elephant husbandry tools" used by some zoos, though not by Zoo Atlanta, where Deputy Director Dwight Lawson said because staff is separated from elephants by a barrier at all times, "they do not employ a guide/ankus/bullhook in the course of their routine care and animal management."
But, Albert said, "without this tool, you cannot have elephants at the circus. Period."
Jackie Davis, executive vice president of Atlanta-based UniverSoul Circus, asked commissioners to postpone the vote so bullhook proponents could have more time to present their case. Several circus supporters complained that they were unaware the matter was being brought up again until the commission agenda went out Friday.
Atlanta City Councilman Michael Bond said he would need to do some research before taking a side. On the one hand, he said, no one wants to hurt defenseless animals, but Atlanta just lost the Thrashers and doesn't
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/fulton-bans-elephant-bullhooks-964106.html
ELEPHANT CARE
CCo
Thursday, June 2, 2011
The Insanity of a Free Society, and the Right To An Opinon, Regardless Of It's Ignorance Continues. Say Thank You To a Soldier.
Wolfgang Holtzmeir--1971
Courtesy of Nick De Wolf
Imagine being able to buy a ticket to witness the greatness of Wolfgang and GGW in one day on the same show!!!!!!! You bet, it will never be again what it once was. It can't be, it is impossible. Boy was I lucky to see it, and be a part of it before it tanked into the post Irvin Feld era.
Gunther Gebel Williams--1971
Courtesy of Nick De Wolf
The other day noted circus fan/historian Dick Flint was pondering, "why are there so few picture's available of the magical era of circus in the 1970's-1980's? You tend to see the same pictures, normally mass produced staged publicity photo's." That is an interesting observation that many, many folks have raised in the past. My opinion is that we were just too busy creating incredible, never to be seen again act's and production's, that we have the time to even think about taking pictures and movies documenting what it was we were doing. Simply, we were just too busy "getting er done" and being amazingly great. No need to spike the football and do a dance. We had scored touchdowns before, and knew we would score them again. No big deal, just what we did. CRASH, BOOM, SMASH!!!!!!! Radar, would you pick Casey up off the floor, wipe the gag off of his chin, so that I may continue please. That's a fact, back then we were just too busy doing it, to even think about getting a picture of us doing it. The competition was insane, wild and incredible and you were stacked up against the Greatest that had ever practiced the craft.
I feel another reason may have been Ringling's policy of "no pictures or filming" back stage or during a performance. There was a well known producer who would make ever effort to find out in advance what Ringlings "spec" was going to be, and then he would produce a cheap version of it, so he could be first. Do you folks remember that? LOL Failing to find out in advance he would console himself with buying props/costumes that Ringling was finished with and producing a cheaper version of what had already transpired a few years earlier, in an effort to be "just as good as Ringling." The scrambling, groveling, begging, and pleading for an opening night ticket, so you could attend as one of the "chosen" was incredible, with all pride, integrity, and dignity chucked out the window in an effort to acquire a coveted "Willy Wonka Gold Ticket." LOL Today there is so little interest, that a new show is out on the road for 3 months before folks realize there is a new show.
The vast majority of photo's I have posted today are "never before seen" or at the least "rarely seen." Thank God and bless the Circus Fans of America, and others who chose to ignore the "no pictures/filming" policy or just filmed random happenings, because their efforts have become the greatest documentation of the greatest era of the circus. NUFF SAID, CASE CLOSED!!!!!!! What are photo's like these worth? I don't know, but if an Ansel Adams or a Richard Avedon is worth from 10's of thousands to priceless, pictures like the one above and the others below are in my opinion; right around the same price range.
Gunther Gebel Williams--1971
The other day John Milton Herriott told about the DAY Jorgen Christenson stepped into the ring and presented part of John's liberty act. In my opinion, there is not greater honor then to have a superior colleague step into your ring making himself your peer and part of your presentation.
Gunther's "official return to the ring" is noted as 1994, but very few know that there was an "unofficial return to the ring" in 1993, in Greensboro, N. C., if I remember correctly. After his "retirement" GGW as Vice President in Charge of Animal Services would travel to the Blue Show about once a month to see that all was running smooth. At these times he would help my men shift the tigers into the arena, and offer assistance from outside while I presented the act. On this particular day, he had spent a lot of time in the stable, talking to his tigers and I sensed that he was really missing them that day, and while lining them up for the show instead of pitching in as he normally did, he just kinda stood off to the side and watched. During the performance, I glanced at him a couple of times, and instead of moving around the cage, which was his normal actions, he just crouched by the door. When it came time for the roll over, I walked to the back of the cage, moved the pyramid bridge from in front of the door, and suggested, "why don't you roll them over today, Boss?" His face lit up and he said, "thank you, Wade", and handed me his stick as I handed him my whips. He called the first two tigers down Pinto and Rolls , who were his tigers, and asked, "who are the other ones, young man." LOL I pointed out my tigers, Sabre and Madress and he called them down. By the time he finished the second roll over to the left, and was started back to the right, it dawned on the audience who that was in the cage, in the black tuxedo(nobody in the modern circus has ever had the facial recognition of GGW) and when he cracked the whip to cue the situp they exploded with applause and a standing ovation!!!!(first standing ovation my act ever got, was in 1977 in Montreal Canada and now the second in 1994). He put the cat's back on their seat's handed me my whips, and I handed him back his stick and he walked out on the track, raised his arms in his signature "Jesus Christ, Superstar" style, and rocked the house again. I should have just stopped the act, and sent the cat's out, because I sure felt stupid and inadequate continuing. A day and a moment that no amount of money in the world could ever buy.
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