From Scripp's Treasure Coast Newspapers
Are bullhooks/guides needed for training - March 2, 2010
YES - Dr. Dennis Schmitt: Guides necessary to help elephants learn
Dennis Schmitt, guest columnistTraining any animal that lives with humans is essential to care for that animal properly. Everyone who owns a dog, cat or horse knows that their animal must be provided veterinary care, exercise, grooming and affection in a manner that is safe for both the caregiver and the animal. When elephants are in human care, it is our responsibility to make sure their needs are met.
The guide simply is a tool for the effective management of elephants that assists the learning process. It resembles the show stick used daily throughout the world, moving pigs and cows on ranches, farms and at livestock shows.
The elephant guide is used in the same manner for elephants. It has a heel used for directing an elephant away from the handler and a curved end for bringing the elephant toward the handler. Like a show stick, the elephant guide is not an instrument of abuse when used properly. It is a humane tool, proven effective for managing elephants and recognized as safe and appropriate by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums the Elephant Managers Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association.
When initially training an elephant to lift its leg, a handler pairs a verbal cue with a physical cue. The handler uses the guide to gently apply pressure to the back of the elephant’s leg, prompting the animal to move the leg forward. When the elephant responds in that manner, the behavior is rewarded with food and praise, communicating to the elephant that moving the leg forward was the correct response. The goal in elephant training is for the elephant to eventually respond to the verbal cue alone, with the guide coming into play only when the elephant doesn’t respond to the verbal cue, for instance when it is distracted or unable to hear.
Common examples of similar training tools include the bridle on a horse and the leash on a dog. Each of these tools, when used properly, applies pressure to a part of the animal’s body. When the animal moves in the proper direction, the pressure is eliminated and the animal is rewarded for responding correctly. Most people ride their horses using a bridle and most people walk their dogs on a leash. Without the proper tools and training, animals cannot be guided reliably.
Animal-rights extremists have been misrepresenting the elephant guide to support their agenda, which includes eliminating elephants in captivity, putting the livestock industry out of business and removing companion animals from our homes.
The leadership of many extremist groups appears to purposely mislead their membership and the general public to encourage indignation and initiate action. This well-funded minority is extremely vocal, attracts media attention through their stunts and emotion-based rhetoric, and attempts to influence elected officials in communities where these extremists don’t even reside.
These tactics sometimes result in officials making poor decisions based on the extremist’s fervor rather than listening to their own constituency, experts in the field, and common sense.
Schmitt, of Missouri, specializes in elephant medical and reproductive management, providing his expertise to facilities worldwide, is research and reproductive adviser for the AZA Elephant TAG/SSP Management Group, and is on the board of the International Elephant Foundation. Schmitt conducts workshops internationally to train veterinarians and wildlife specialists.
N0 - Dr. Mel Richardson: No good reasons for elephant trainers to use bull hooks
Dr. Mel Richardson, veterinarianA tool of elephant trainers has been around for centuries. It essentially is a fireplace poker with a sharp point to push and a sharp hook to pull. And whether you call it an ankus, a bull hook or a guide (the favored politically correct term currently in use by zoos and circuses), it is in my experience all too often just a cruel weapon.
Zoo spokesmen, like Jack Hanna, claim the hook is meant merely to tell the elephant to come along, no different than me taking you behind the elbow and leading you. I asked a friend and longtime elephant handler: If this were the case, then why wouldn’t a wooden cane work? His reply was simple:
“Mel, if it doesn’t hurt, the elephant will not respond to it.”
At one point in my career, I was veterinarian for an animal dealer in Texas with 52 elephants under my care. The majority were 2- to 5-year-old African orphans from the elephant culls in Zimbabwe, where adults were slaughtered to control the overpopulation in the parks. I witnessed the brutality of the training or breaking of these babies.
I treated their cuts, lacerations and abscesses from the use of the bull hook. I have seen the skin over the lower jaw of a baby elephant actually slough off, due to the repeated “hooking” and subsequent infection set up by the trauma of breaking. It is called breaking, in that the goal is to break the baby’s spirit so that he or she literally succumbs to your every wish.
The hook is an instrument of intimidation and domination. Without this cruel weapon and the fear it engenders, circuses cannot make the elephants perform unnatural behaviors, such as headstands, walking on hind legs or balancing on balls.
Zoo defenders of the bull hook justify its use claiming it causes no harm, which is patently a lie. They insist the tool is needed to control the elephants for medical exams and treatments. They continue to advocate working elephants in a “free contact” program, using the hook to maintain their dominance. I have worked elephants in a “protected contact” system, in which I stand outside of the elephants’ enclosure protected by an iron wall. Through windows I can draw blood, examine and care for their feet. Critics claim the elephants will not cooperate in such a system. But experience has proven protected contact works and hooks are unnecessary.
You cannot control a wild adult four- to five-ton elephant with a bull hook. But if you take calves like Ringling’s Barack at less than a year and break them with the use of hooks, the hook then becomes a reminder of the trainer’s control over the elephant. YouTube is replete with behind-the-scenes footage of handlers “reminding” elephants about to perform, with a hook to the mouth or behind the ear, just for good measure.
Richardson, a veterinarian from Paradise, Calif., has more than 40 years of experience, observing, treating and providing care for a wide variety of captive wild animal species, including elephants. He is a captive wild animal consultant establishing Alliance for Zoo Animal Welfare, an organization dedicated to improving the care and welfare of captive wild animals.
Editorial: Keep working on deal to bring elephant center to Treasure Coast
If St. Lucie County commissioners were considering approval of a hot-dog stand, would they demand to know its recipe for chili?
Of course not. But, in a January meeting, commissioners grilled representatives from the National Elephant Center for five hours on how they planned to operate their proposed center in western St. Lucie.
Of course, there is a big difference in how a hot dog tastes and how an elephant is treated. The biggest is the considerable advocacy for the elephants on the part of animal-rights organizations.
Following the January meeting — with numerous concessions from center representatives — commissioners unanimously approved the project, which generally would serve as a temporary home for zoo elephants while their facilities are being renovated. The project cost is estimated at $4 million. Initially, there could be eight to 10 elephants on the 326-acre site. Though it would not be open to the public, tours would be available for Treasure Coast schoolchildren.
But, when the board of directors of the National Elephant Center reviewed the deal, directors were unhappy with some of the demands made by commissioners in regard to operational details rather than matters directly related to the zoning issue. They also were concerned with the tone of the public hearing held on the matter.
Commissioners seemed less than welcoming to the center and bent over backward to satisfy the demands of local and national animal-rights groups.
Rick Barongi, chair of the center, said, “It’s really about the environment. There was definitely an atmosphere that leaves some cause for concern.”
If the center and commissioners cannot reach a new agreement — in a spirit of cooperation and mutual concerns — the center board may seek another site where the center may be more appreciated.
That could be a loss for the Treasure Coast. While the center may not have much impact on the economy and jobs, it could provide some prestige. In addition, such use of the rural land would be far better for the environment and for quality of life than more cookie-cutter housing developments.
In reaching a new deal, St. Lucie County commissioners should not back down on demands that the elephants be well treated. What that means may be somewhat subjective. But, if the center draws unpleasant publicity, that would reflect badly, also, on the county.
At the same time, the center itself should recognize that the health and safety of elephants living there must be the highest priority for it and its zoo partners.
There should be room for some negotiations and some compromises, particularly on the part of commissioners related to operational details of the center.
Failure to reach a deal could send a negative message to other businesses looking to St. Lucie County and the Treasure Coast. That concern, which has been raised by the St. Lucie County Chamber of Commerce, needs to be understood and appreciated.
Elephant Center leaders still undecided about bringing facility to St. Lucie
ST. LUCIE COUNTY — No decision has been made on whether the National Elephant Center will come to St. Lucie County, center Chairman Rick Barongi said Friday.
County commissioners have approved the site in an agreement with center officials on the $4 million, 326-acre project near the Okeechobee County border. The center would house eight to 10 elephants, many of which would come in while zoos undergo renovations. The center would be a temporary home for the animals, though some could retire there.
However, once the deal was brought back to the center’s board and financial backers, the group balked, claiming the county had an improper tone and made too many demands.
County commissioners disagree with the characterization and say there were no “demands” made, but rather an open discussion took place in which the two sides agreed in good spirits. Center representatives were offered a chance to take the conditions back to their board prior to the agreement.
Center folks say the representatives at the meeting were bullied into agreeing with the commissioners’ requests.
Commission Chairman Charles Grande said because the plan is the first of its kind with regards to elephants, the county needed to ask lots of questions to make sure the project was solid.
Grande and Barongi talked earlier this week to discuss some of the issues.
“We chatted amicably,” Grande said.
Barongi agreed with the tenor of the conversation, though he referred to the talk as preliminary.
“We are still looking at other options,” Barongi said.
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Comments on Dennis Schmitt's column [Note, it seems only those against write in]
Who is really "well funded"? Let's follow the money and see.
And since you are so confident in that the bull hook is benign, why not send one to the St. Lucie County Board of Commissioners to show their constituents how benign and malign it really is!
Oh and why not throw open the doors wide for all to see at this facility at any time?
I am hoping to hear from "Wonkavision" on this because, you do have a way with words!
RowanM writes: Schmitt, in his eagerness to discredit those against the use of steel tipped rods to dominate exotic animals, leaves out several important facts. (1) More than 50 percent of zoos in the U.S., including the Oakland Zoo, the North Carolina Zoo, and the San Diego Zoo, never use bullhooks on the elephants at their facilities, and those elephants, and trainers, do just fine. (2) Circuses use the exact same argument as Schmitt - right down to the "it's the same as using a leash on a dog" analogy. Does anyone seriously believe this? I guess if Schmitt and Ringling think if they repeat it enough, people will. I think most people understand the difference between a leash and a steel tipped bullhook. (3) You wouldn't hit a tiger with a steel tipped rod to make them do the behaviors you want them to do, and you wouldn't hit a polar bear with one. Elephants should not be any different.
How sad that those in charge of animals in this country are so backwards as to defend the use of this outdated weapon on intelligent, majestic elephants.
michellet75 writes: Bullhooks may have once been used "humanely" but world wide we see these are no longer humane instruments as we all would love to believe. Case after case has been documented how elephants, grown & infants, are beaten and tortured with such 'humane instruments' as you seem to deem bullhooks. They are not necessary and the cruel 'training' that takes place with elephants for human entertainments needs to come to an end. It's cruel, horrific, barbaric at times, and all in the name of entertainment. I hope that you can see that we have progressed as a modern world and some practices and instruments of cruelty are absolutly no longer needed in such a time as this. I'm in opposition of the use of bullhooks.
Thank you for your kind consideration of banning them.
Sincerely,
Michelle A Thielen
mbuist writes: Wow, perpetuating cruelty toward captive elephants is really a symptom of a much larger problem. The problem being that no animals should be taken from their natural habitat, especially for human entertainment or exploitation. These "sticks" that are used to control elephants that we have no right to control is just ignorant, sickening behavior. Why would anyone want to treat any living being like that? His weak explanations do not have me fooled for one second!
JBM writes: Why guide an elephant at all, Dr. Schmitt? Many accredited zoos and sanctuaries are capable of providing care to their elephants using protected contact, where the handlers remain on the other side of a barrier from the elephants at all times. It is safer for the staff and more humane for the elephants. Of course, it's harder to make them do all those neat tricks that way, but zoos don't do that, do they?
john649 writes: NO, NO, NO!
If you have any intention to treat these elephants humanely then DROP the dreaded bullhook! Do you really think it is 'extreme' to use humane methods to take care of elephants. Your 'animal rights extremists' propaganda is shallow. Portraying those who refuse to buy into the idea you must abuse animals simply isn't working.
It's time for you retire. Your methods are OLD, OUTDATED and ABUSIVE!
NO BULLHOOKS! NO WAY!
alyne16 writes: Elephants are not native to the United States. The ones who are here, much to their detriment, should be the concern of all of us. Isn’t it enough that everything has been taken from these intelligent, sentient animals? They live in postage stamp sized displays, ripped from their families, suffer from isolation, bored to the point of mental illness as seen by their neurotic repetitive behaviors and the list goes on. Do we also need to have them live under constant fear? Protected contacted is used by humane handlers of elephants with superb success – it protects the elephants from the whims and emotions of humans and protects the handlers from injury as well. Haven’t we learned anything from the tragedy at Sea World?
carmelx44#518241 writes:As someone who has studied elephants for years and who has also worked hard to see the conditions and treatment they are subjected to are improved, I find this article by Dennis Schmitt misleading, if not deliberately so. He uses the word "stick" to refer to what is really called a bullhook, or in India, an Ankusa. He says, that the handler "apply gentle pressure", where in reality the sharp hook is inserted into the elephant's sensitive skin, either slightly or more deeply, to cause pain and induce the elephant to behave in a certain manner. Mr. Schmitt also says, "not an instrument of abuse when used properly", yes, well you could say that, but the fact of the matter is it is used improperly and has been well documented, from workers in the industry, filmed footage of elephants being beaten by bullhooks, while chained to metal post, blood pouring from them, and they can't get away. Hundreds of photographs, and the list goes on. Here is a article the Washington Post ran on how Ringling treats baby elephants in their care, they say its training, but its torture plain and simple. Putting an elephant in this position applies extreme pressure on their joints so it breaks their spirit, what the pictures do not show is the animal screaming. Please check this out:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...
Remember that Mr.Schmitt gets paid to write these comments, and we who are the true watch dogs for these great animals do it for free, because we care.
alookc writes: I guess Mr. Schmitt has not seen the latest and greatest way this "humane tool" is used by Ringling. The back stage video does not lie. Was that training? This elephant center has a problem with the hook because it would limit the zoos that can send their elephants there. Elephant comes in on full contact management and leaves on protected contact, those full contact keepers will have big problems using their "humane tool" when the elephant returns. It is amazing to me that "DVM's" can endorse something like this when there is another PROVEN more humane way. The fact that the so-called "extremist" gave St. Lucie an award for banning the hook, proves they are not 100% anti captive animal but that they are 100% anti abuse of captive animals.
wagstopurrs writes: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated"...Ghandi.
The use of the bullhook is so outdated and barbaric it's criminal. There's such a simple test for all you out there who insist it's just a "nudge of the elbow". I'd very much like to see you "nudged" by the bullhook the same way elephants are "nudged". Some many circus and zoo trainers appear to not even remotely like animals at all. Remember the trainer at Barnum & Bailey ON VIDEO telling his student trainers -- "beat them till they scream" -- meaning the baby elephants. When are people (and our government,specifically USDA & APHIS) ever going to stop being bribed and greedy at the expense of animals. Mr. Schmitt - how much were you paid for your testimony? To say a bullhook is like a leash on a dog or the reins of a horse is ludicrous! It tears the flesh; it creates infections and sores -- IT'S PAINFUL AND TOTALLY UNNECESSARY (I live in San Diego and we never use bullhooks at our zoo or Wild Animal Park) I'm so discouraged and disgusted that the AZA encourages the use of this barbaric training method. How can we trust these people to monitor our zoos and circuses? -- they haven't been doing their job for years and certainly, aren't concerned about what's best for the animals. WE NEED TO HALT THE USE OF BULLHOOKS IMMEDIATELY!! AND GET ELEPHANTS OUT OF CIRCUSES AND ANTIQUATED ZOOS THAT USE THEM.
merrywriter writes: Right now I am at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. These rescued logging elephants knew the ankus and worse, but through kindness and trust each with their personal mahout, they stay out of the next door neighbor's banana trees (like a chocolate temptation to us) with a shout and a push of the hand. If you've got unhappy elephants as they are in circuses and zoos, the keeper needs to be afraid of what the elephant might do, but with a trusting relationship that is not the case and I've seen it first hand. I'm out of the country only because there is no other place I can go to see elephants treated as they should be. (PAWS in CA & TES in TN are cloistered for good reason.)
Does the county want to do business with the AZA which lies and intimidates? This is the stunt they pulled in Topeka: the AZA told its city council if they moved their two sick elephants to a sanctuary, they would not agree to get a gorilla for their lonely female who's mate had died. This callousness toward the welfare of three helpless animals at the mercy of such cold-heartedness should be warning for the intimidation set to come for St. lucie County too.
BTW I like my steak medium, want to see a match race between Zenyatta and Rachel Alexander, and have never even heard of animal rights groups, of which I have read much information, demand that our pets be taken from us. The AZA gets more and more desperate as their lies are exposed.
Merry, Vero Beach
freedomnow writes:this is a very complicated issue as some people think its ok to mistreat animals in the name of entertainment, convincing themselves that using 'training devices' such as bullhooks, are ok. i strongly disagree and feel that no animal, whether its a cat, dog, elephant, horse, bird, mouse etc, should ever be forced to perform.
and you cant compare keeping and 'training' elephants to having a dog or cat as a pet.
dogs and cats arent made to perform, arent threatened with physical pain when they do some thing that their carer feels is wrong (such as biting some one, or doing some thing which is antisocial).
dogs and cats are also given love and companionship, not made to do tricks to entertain people (atleast, no dogs or cats i know) and threatened with pain and a sharp stick if they dont give the desired result.
its sad when so called experts sell out.
Posts
Dr_K_Lindsay writes:
What’s the NEC’s complaint? Acting decently towards animals is not on the same level as selling hot dogs. They have been allowed their Center, and the Commissioners’ conditions are entirely reasonable. The requirement of oversight is the least contentious condition for the NEC. They may feel that they know their jobs better than everyone else and resent any advice, however well-informed, but the issue of humane care is not a closed shop. As a conservation biologist with over 30 years’ experience with elephants, I know that heavy-handed treatment by people results only in problems, for the animals and their human neighbors. NEC people insisting on the right to use metal-tipped bullhooks shows that something is wrong with their attitude. Using such a weapon – “guide” is a euphemism – to control elephants’ behavior has already been abandoned by many zoos around the country, replaced with “protected contact” and/or “positive control”. These good practices minimize the risks to humans and elephants alike and in no way limit the ability of keepers to care or manage their elephants. The Commissioners should be applauded for protecting public involvement, and the NEC should be willing to have an open, and continuing, dialogue about captive elephants.