Speaking ahead of Friday's show, Chris Barltrop from the Great British Circus said: "The trainer just deals with them by word of voice, he's not pushing them around with sticks or whips or anything else. "He just says 'do this' and they follow him and do it. They follow him around devotedly like some sort of dog... [it is the] same sort of relationship. 
I wonder what that is in this young mans hand? Is Mr. Baltrop suggesting that they are necessary for dogs? Or is he suggesting that some whips are all right, and some whips are not? Or is he saying that this person is one of those" who carries it but never uses it." This kind of whip is more severe then a lash whip. I don't know what it's use could be or the need to carry it. It doesn't make a crack, "which is only used to cue an animal, but not actually touch them." Ben, if a company spokesman says, "our people don't eat apples, and have never eaten an apple," would it be in his and the company's best interest as being believable/valid, to know what an apple actually is? I'll bet there is even a hook someplace under the bed at least.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The Art of Spokesmanship
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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10 comments:
They need to learn in England that they are not sticks, whips, or even elephant hooks. The are "guide's" and they are handy when elephants are not on their "tethers" Phillip C
Mr. Phillip C,
Are you suggesting that by changing the name of the tools it will somehow change the public perception of the tools? I think the word "guide" will be immediately disqualified if anyone sees the "guide" being used two handed like a baseball bat. Which I am quite certain happens in the lower forms of elephant training on every continent, not just in America. Changing what something is called is far less important then teaching the public what it should and shouldn't be used for.
Also,
Saying the elephants are "tethered" is still "chained up" to the folks on the other side of the fence. It doesn't change how the elephant or the public views anything.
Casey, you might want to have that conversation with Ringling's PR department, which is unyielding in its insistence that these are "guides" and "teathers". No matter how sharp the hook or how heavy the chain.
A2
Casey,
I think that what Philip was saying was why change the name? The action is still the same. And it has nothing to do with teaching the public. If the profession had been policed, and more demanding then "who wants to do it" you wouldn't be having to justify. I am truly saddened at having to defend any way, let alone make up a new name. But look at the ignorant statement made by Mr. Baltrop. He basically said something was wrong with the tools. Or maybe it was/is just the people he has seen using them.
Do you hear riders justifying spurs? Are they calling then "encourages." It is what is done with them. or the "action" by ignorant, savages that makes them wrong. If you used the French, German, Or Hungarian word for spur, it would be the same thing, just describing an action that the English language is unfamiliar with.
Wade
A2,
We have to give Ringling credit as they do have an elephant management program that they initiated years ago, which is a big, big step in standardizing. The first and as of yet only one in the circus industry. The Zoo elephant management group has decided to use standard sea mammal training terms for the various elephant programs in zoos. At least it is a start in policing and standardizing.
I am just always terrible angry at the self serving people who use a surcingle to train, and then when it has practiced for a long time, take it off and make ignorant people believe that it is humane and they are better trainers then they are. Just as the elephant presenter with a lame old act, professing kindness at not using a hook. IT IS NOT THE TOOLS THAT ARE BAD, AND CHAINS, TETHERS, LEASHES, ROPES ARE NOT BAD EITHER. IT IS THE PEOPLE THAT USE THESE TOOLS WRONG THAT ARE BAD.
The person riding an old dink at the "rent a hour trail ride stable" should not use spurs because first and most important he doesn't know how to use them, and his horse does nothing and is not going to be required to pass a 3 level dressage test. I do see a number of acts in Europe with one or two old elephants where I want to say, "leave the whip at home, it is a waste of time with those old girls." By the same token I always used a whip, but then I never had less then 5 elephants in the ring, and it saved me from walking from end to end and making them trunk up. I could stand in my position and get it done with a "long arm". Exactly like the boy with the ducks. No more no less. And no more harmful then what you see with the ducks.
The English language is difficult for many foreigners because it has a different meaning for one word which sounds the same. See, Sea, here, hear, etc. The word whip means many different things but it sounds the same. You'll just chose to chose the word you want it to mean, to fit a different purpose. Maybe it is an idea to call a whip a latigo?
Wade
Might start calling my hook a tickling stick .......
Don,
How they don't see that they have damaged the industry as much, with the knee jerk reaction to change the name, when again it is the action not the tool. There was a horse whisper here in the Colonies, that I stopped endorsing a couple of years ago, because he started selling a fiber glass pole, like we use for pieces of meat and shifting pigs, with 8 foot of rope on the end as a "carrot stick". It is used like a whip that doesn't crack.
The evil starts in the brain, goes done the neck, travels across the shoulder, done the arm, to the hand, to what ever implement, what ever you want to call it. It is not the implement it's self.
Wade
Wade, I know the guy you mean. He toured here a couple of years ago. A young ladyI know went to see him, and then bought one of those carrot sticks for about $50 dollars, so a couple of days later I bought a little buggy whip for $5 and cut the lash off; she couldn't tell me why her one was better!!!! Or even how it differed! Marketing is a great tool isn't it!? You are quite right, dress it up how you want, a tool is a tool and how you use it is the crux of the matter. And I don't believe anyone who says they never have to use a hook (or a whip) on occasion with an elephant and still gets the same response
Don,
If she bought it for 50.00, she got a steal. They normally go for 125.00 to 135.00. The fiber glass poles can be bought in bulk for 7.00 apiece and they have about 2.00 worth of lariat whipped on the end, with a .6 cent leather keeper. Total cost with your time, is about 10.00-12.00.
I went to a clinic a number of years ago, and the women told me, "I am going to explain the use of the whip like you told me, ask, tell, and promise because it is easy to understand and makes sense. The clinic starts and she is going to lunge the horse over cavallettes. When the horse balked she said, "if it refuses, I give it butterfly touches!!!!!!" I like to have shit. She demonstrated and then said, "if that doesn't work, I use bumblebee stings!!!!!!!" She finished by demonstrating, "as a last resort, I use yellow jacket stings!!!!!" At the end of the clinic she came up to me, and said, "what did you think of my demonstration?" I looked her right in the eye, and said, "Brilliant. If you were explaining to Chimpanzee's," and walked away shaking my head.
I just finished a gig, where I put 12 colts under saddle. The first thing I do when I arrive at the stable is put on my spurs. As I insist on brushing and grooming a horse before I ride it, and I insist on bathing it and grooming after the ride, I can can school 6 new horse's in a 9 hour day. In that 9 hours and 6 horses, I may lay iron on 2 or 3 of them a couple of times. The next day it may be two or three different horses that say, "yes please, I need help and encouragement." The point is, in 9 hour day I may use the spurs 10 times for a total of about 15 secs. But I can't go look for them when I need them. I need them now, this instant, not 10 minutes from now. That's why I don't need them much, because they respond/react instantly when they are needed. They are a part of me. They are the lower part of my legs, nothing more nothing less. From the moment I walk in the stable the rowels jingle, and they don't stop jingling until I leave. I can't dismount and go get them, if the colt decides he doesn't want to move off of my leg. The colt never learns I am that powerless, and can be taken advantage of. And they never learn to take advantage, so that I have to "over correct" them, because the action is instantaneous. Black and white, cut and dried, no questions asked. It is very fair and honest, ask, tell, and promise. They are conning you if they say they don't have a hook someplace near by. Unless it is maybe a very, very, very, isolated circumstance. I didn't need a hook and whip if I was just giving them hay and grain. But if I needed 11 trunks up, until the grain is divided equally, then I needed my Lockhart. Some of those remarkable creatures will cheat, and steal a scoop of grain, if I didn't "watch" with the Lockhart.
My father didn't wear a belt to beat me with. He used it to hold up his pants. But he could get to it real quick if he had to. That close proximity always made me think twice, before I refused him. LOL And that's why he never had to use more then a couple of times.
Wade
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