A couple of years ago, this women Joy Holliday was killed by the White Tiger, and a few months later the assistant Chuck was killed by the same White Tiger, yet they exposed the animals to the public for years without any protective barrier. I never knew any of them, but rumor has it that they had a rider in their contract where if they witnessed any animal abuse on what ever show they were appearing with, they could break the contract. Yes, two people were killed by "one of the children", and all of their animals were declawed, so I was just wondering where they drew the line at "animal abuse." Ranks right up there at the top of the self serving heap. Gotta love show folks!!!!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Cat Dancers
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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13 comments:
There's a certain "disrespect" to "incidents" like the cat dancers deaths. You can't call it tragedy. There's nothing tragic about the hubris required to believe that you've somehow wholely subverted all traces of naturalistic behavior. Yes there are contact cats, but no legitimate contact cat can be cuddled, fondled, and touched all the time. As soon as a cat (or a bear) is declawed, as soon as a venomous snake is defanged the so called trainers systematically violate all of the spacial relationships associated with distance. While animals may learn to tolerate that constant violation of flight distance, their stress levels are impacted and eventually some go mad. Of course declawing was abusive, especially for the sake of creating contact animals that may have had personalities ill-disposed to that physicality to begin with. Not sure the tiger was any danger to the audience. I imagine more than anything else it was a cat that longed to get away and be left alone. I don't even know if you could call it aggressive. It lashed out and killed two people who made life miserable. It sounds entirely defensive.
I remember Ron and Joy..We worked the Hamid Show and I believe the steel pier one season with them..Joy use to give ballet lessons to all the girls on the show..They were really nice people..I think the story is that Chuck was the first to die in an attack from Jupiter in 1998, and 5 weeks later Joy went into his cage, rumor has it she commited a form of suicide..But you know how rumors are....
Ben,
Good points all, and rest assured the audience was at risk also. The nonsense of having some kind of special "love" is the myth I hope will some how fade away some day. It is understanding/knowing what you are dealing with, and to even suggest that it loves you proves you have no understanding and a false knowledge.
Wade
I only saw this act at the Evansville Shrine date a few years ago. It was interesting and scary. They did have a clouded leopard along with the tiger -- don't remember all the cats. Standard big cat magic act. The scary part was watching the lack of control they had with the tiger. The cat would drag them about the ring and if he didn't want to hop in the cage, he didn't. I saw the act several times, not just one show.
I'm sure they thought they were working the animals with love and, in turn, the animals would respect them. Tigers can love tigers, a tiger and a person is a different relationship -- it can be postive but it's different. (Like I'm telling Wade about tigers but it's true for everything else.) Their naive approach put the audience and themselves at danger. Another "didn't someone notice this?"
Jim,
It's never a matter of didn't somebody notice. It's more a matter of having the courage to say something isn't right, and accepting just because it is covered with glitter and spangles doesn't mean it is anything more then what it is. I told Roy Horn he wrong, and somebody would get hurt. They thanked my for the advice by never asking me to their house again. And that self serving love deal pretty much isn't valid for any animal. It's why it is only quoted to reporters, fans, or dates for the evening. Most everyone else knows better.
Wade
WOW!!!
I mean WOW!!!
What else can you say? I never saw these guys just heard the legends..(I had a friend contract shingles by doing a date with them) It seems he is still oblivious to what happened and why. As far as the love thingy, if tigers "love" each other, they have an awful funny way of showing it. Mine will lay sleeping in each others arms for hours, and the one who wakes up first quickly bites the one that is still sleeping, just to bite her. If thats love.....I would hope they don't love me the same...
The problem was "love" is that it's tinged with anthropomorphism. It always amazes me when I meet somebody who has been around an animal for years, and still tries to "explain" it's every behavior in human terms. The number of people who can't "read" their dogs is astounding. As soon as a cat is declawed, as soon as you pull an animal's canines, or fangs it's like a license to torture -- because that's what "inflicting" all that "love" really is. You can't safely "play"... and so much of this is a misguided effort to "play."
I watched Cat Dancers last night. I'm curious Wade and Casey,
have you seen it yet?
I must say I found myself watching the cat's actions more than focusing on the story.
In my eyes it seemed like every second they were using food to get the cats to respond. I mean ALL THE TIME!!! Seemed like an over-do to me with the treat issue so I was curious what you guys thought.
Jody,
I myself chose not to address things like the "cat dancers". There are even things that I will not get that dirty or close to in this industry of "no standard, do what you want."
Wade
WHAT?
ARE YOU SERIOUS?
NO OPINION?
You better take your temperature..
Must be sick...
At least tell me if you've watched the movie...
Jody,
Why would I watch it? Some things don't warrant an opinion. But that's just my opinion. LOL I now what it is, given the format.
Don't forget I had to point out a cage act, which won a "coveted" silver clown had to be spliced together from various shows, to make on usable performance to give the illusion of validity in a profession with no standard.
Wade
Wade,
Even if you have standards that doesn't mean people will always follow them. Look at the horse industry.
I was curious and trying to understand their thoughts in regards to their training techniques. It was obvious they loved their cats. It seemed to me that they refused to believe these were not house cats even tho they hand-raised them... I watched the film and I kept asking myself, if they didn't have treats in their hands they'd be in big trouble. I was very uneasy watching them cuddle,kiss,hug,etc. Yes, I've seen some of that before in acts but not to this extreme. The movie led you to believe that the entire reason both were killed was because the cat was inbred. Am I wrong in thinking that from what I saw, it could have happened with any of their cats at any time?
Also, as I watched, I didn't see the cats having any respect for them. No respect no control. Aren't they the same as horses regarding that?
Okay, I just read your last post. You didn't watch the movie. Maybe someone else can answer my questions....
Why isn't the recent post working yet?
They will probably never even see this..
Jody,
If you are a member of an association with standards, your are obligated to abide those standards. If not, and you are caught you are penalized or taken out of the association. I will reference for one the Boggs incident with Arabians. Just because you own an Arabian does not mean, you are a part of an industry. If you want to compete in the big shows, for the big money you have to abide by a "standard." If you want to breed "all black zero white Fresians" you must abide by the standard of that association. By all means if you want to breed Fresians with stars, blazes, socks, etc. there is an association for that that has a "standard" for that and it must be adhered to. Yes you can have what ever you want in your back yard, but you can't compete with others for the big money. The same is true of training methods or associations like the Elephant Managers Association without the factor of competing for the big bucks.
95% percent of the people who have animals and profess to love them, do so because it justifies having them.
Wade
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