"Animal Planet Expert" is the greatest oxymoron since "Peace keeping missile!!!!" The use of the word "moron" in oxymoron defines an "animal planet expert" to a T.
Get ready circus world. That "net arena" which the one news "expert" referred to as a "tent", which was the brainchild of Carlos Farfan, and is used all over the world at almost every zoological park, from Brookfield, to Lisbon, to Germany, as a safe containment for animals from felines to primates, to bears, and has been used successfully since the mid 70's for wild animal acts is now going to be called into question, by every "knee jerk animal rights expert" in the world.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Now comes the expected "expert commentary". I assume we can look for insight from Jungle Jack also.
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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10 comments:
WADE,
When a trainer is in a "code red" situation like this, you've either been attacked already or just having enourmous trouble with one animal.
Would it ever be wise to either, 1)send the trouble maker out of the ring and continue the show. or 2)move on to another action not involving the trouble maker, then come back to that animal later when hes a little calmer and in a less heightened state of mind.
How conditioned are the animals to perform thier act in a set order of tricks....would it cause major problems if you skipped a trick here or there, or are they generally use to the act going from A to B to C tricks. Finally when you got "downed" when Josip was filming was that practice or a actual performance.
thanks in advance
Vincent/San Diego
Net/wire cages: with all respect for Carlos' genius in circus props, at my knowledge the net cage was first introduced and patented in 1960/61 by Wioris Togni, for his brother's Darix tiger act (patent number displayed on cage at every performance!). At the time, a delegation of Soviet Circus visting Togni's, casually discovered the solution and introduced it in Russia; other circuses followed in Europe's as Williams etc. I don't know if the first to introduce it in Usa was Charly Baumann, or others before.
Thanks to whom can correct or precise my informations.
Vincent,
This was past "code red", and had reached "def con 3" or "meltdown." I don't know when this occurred in the act, but if you notice, they were trying to put the animals out, but they were refusing to go, either one of them or all, it is hard to tell. Occasionally an animal will "blank out" or become so distracted or scared for some reason, that they freeze and refuse to leave the arena. That's a real bad situation, because they are afraid of where they are and afraid to go out. It is what happened to me in Evansville with Spartacus. They are so tense and wired at that moment that they will attack anything that touches them, whether it be a cage mate or the trainer. They hear nothing including the command "house", as they are "frozen" in terror/confusion. If the trainer attempts to encourage them with the whip, they attack. Doesn't matter at that moment if you blow air at them, or hit them with a baseball bat(don't any animal rights schmuck take baseball bat out of context. It is just an analogy to try to make you as smart as you think you are)they are coming at you hard, or at a cage mate who has brushed against them. That's the bad deal, Vincent. If they stay in the cage, it worries/scares the other animals, yet if they are touched they attack. When this situation happens, the trainer is going down regardless. Damned if you leave them alone, and damned if you attempt to get them out. Next to one grabbing another one by the throat and what I call "mooning out", when the eyes glass over for the kill, one "freezing" is the worst situation a trainer can deal with. You can't prepare an apprentice trainer for that moment. You can advise him, but his life depends on whether he make the right decision in a nano second, and reacts faster then it is assumed man can think or move. Each time I went through one of these deals, I needed 30 mins. alone in the isolation of the dressing room to calm and relax. Don't talk to me, don't look at me, don't ask me anything. Out the arena door straight to the dressing room and LEAVE ME ALONE!!! If you were foolish enough to bother me, or ask me if I was alright, chances are I would react violently to your intrusion. I hope I have been able to transmit the life, and the intensity of people who deal with large groups of large animals.
Most folks have a set routine, which I think is wrong. The animals do it, often without listening. I have always advocated changing the act around to keep the animals alert and listening. It is much more difficult, and for that reason many choose to just work it as a routine.
Wade
Vincent,
The incident you mention when Josip was there was in a show. Most injuries occur in a show, because you can't control the environment as you can in the training barn. Some idiot runs up to the cage for a picture, some prop guy runs by with something, the light man decides to get creative and use a different spot light, etc. etc. 90% of all problems are caused by someone/something else. The trainer has to be ready and react to it. Of close to two dozen attacks only one occurred during training, when the Gardner decided he wanted to show his girlfriend the tigers being trained and walked into the barn at the wrong time. You can count on "human error" from people who don't know better or respect what you do, to lead to almost all injuries.
Wade
Raffaele,
How have you been, friend? Accepting that the Togni's are Holy Creators of things show business, and Italy in the Bethlehem of Circus, and Darix Togni is the Messiah, I was referring to the "interlocking 3 1/2 inch diamond pattern net," not the ugly square chain arena of Darix's or the net square's of different sizes nico pressed together, so that every picture taken of an act has silver "dot's" across it. The square's of different sizes with the nico press dot's holding it together, is the same "design" Ringling used for years, until they saw Hawthorns. Carlos built the first Hawthorn "pull up cage" in 1974 with the interlocking diamonds. He being a trapeze catcher used the same grid/pattern of his flying act net. In 1976 Hawthorn had an aluminum chute(which is now pretty common in Europe, thank you) made strung with cable. Flyer Billy Woods as hired to string the cable, I was told because 1. Carlos didn't have time, or 2. Carlos was too expensive. You choose the right answer, Raffie. They strung the cable straight through it's self, which was standard, without interlocking it. An attempt was made to "match it to the arena, so it was strung in a diamond pattern, which meant nico press sleeves couldn't be used like they were in a "square" pattern. The knock against the net cages was that the square holes "stretched" and got bigger over time, as the nico press sleeves weakened. The chute I am mentioning, ended up being the most dangerous, death trap you can imagine, and a number of people were injured when tigers shoved their heads and paws out and grabbed them, but it was used well into the 80's(which Carlo's eventually changed into the locking diamond pattern, copied over the world. In 1977-1978 Carlos was brought to Richmond to the winter quarters to make a second net cage for John Cox and the second Hawthorn cage act. During that time, he and I discussed what a great deal the "locking diamond pattern" net would be for zoo exhibits instead of the standard bars or expanded metal which was used for barriers. I suggest that smaller locking diamonds could even be used for aviary's, because of it's ability to "drape" over obstacles such as trees, posts or towers. Brookfield Zoo was in the process of building their monumental Tropic World and Carlos went into the city often to "pitch" them on the idea of his "interlocking 3 1/2" diamond pattern net. John Cuneo often "complained" that he didn't hire Carlos to fool around at the zoo. LOL. Brookfield and I believe a zoo in Ohio, maybe Columbus or Toledo were the first one's that used Carlo's net, followed shortly by the Audubon Zoo, and it has sense become standard all over the zoo world. Ringling went to the "3 1/2" diamond pattern on their arena's sometime in the late 80's, as it was not the old "square nico pressed" arena that I used when I returned in 1991. I believe Carlos and company did their arena also. The pattern was later incorporated into "section arenas" also. Folks who can't afford the expense of a diamond net pattern arena, will alibi that they prefer the stronger old barred arenas. The stainless steel cable that is used for the diamond net cages is virtually indestructible, in addition to looking a thousand times better and less prison like, to the "think they know animal rights nuts" then the barred arena's used since the dawn of man.
Now, you can correct me if I am wrong, Raffaele. As long as you do it gentle like I did.
Wade
FYI, Thomas Bohner has a short clip on his blog, Circus for Life(link on the right) of John Campolongo in Germany in 1988 with the redone Carlos Farfan diamond pattern, that I mention, which was "restrung" on the original fold up aluminum chute that Hawthorn had built in 1976, before the act left for Europe.
Wade
Did Dave Salmoni present lions in a zoo or park up in Canada? I thought I saw video of him getting into an altercation with a lion.
-Chris
Wade,
The two things I found interesting were...
1) the cats were hell bent on getting to the trainer, they pretty much ignored the gal in the ring and the helper that came into to assist the trainer.
2)The 2nd lion who attacked the trainer ran over from clear across the ring to attack. It didnt appear the trainer was even dealing with him but as soon as the trainer backed up, he shot across the ring to get him.
In the few these attack videos i've seen, it seems most of the animals will remain seated and calm. I'm always amazed more animals dont "take advantage of the situation" and either attack another animal or pile onto the trainer or even just leave thier seats and run around the ring due to sheer nervousness or fright.
Is the fact that they dont leave thier seats a sign of good training? That they know " as long as I stay right here, I'm safe and not in any trouble"
Any thoughts?
Vincent/San Diego
Chris.
Yes he did. He did a "break down of an attack" on Animal Planet, when they were doing another one of their phony segments. It was a "contact/movie/gentle" lion that attacked him. That was the point I was attempting to make a week ago or so, when I said, "contact "look it loves me" animals are normally intimidated into showing affection, when Ian claimed I had done a 180 in my comment prior. I told him there are varying "degrees" of intimidation, and didn't have the time to explain further, as I knew it would go over his head because he want's it to, as he is convinced that animal trainers are bad, because of the "few" that he was around.
"Varying degrees of intimidation" in the case of a contact animal, normally mean's none at all, they are submissive from birth and have never been corrected. They are a very dangerous animal, if they do decide to "go south" as they have never been corrected, and you don't have the psychological ace in the hole of the word "no." Contact animals for the most part are "counterfeits" acting submissive and loving, waiting for the day they mature and make their move. Ar people, are funny. They think an animal loves "like a human child" yet they don't think they can also be corrected/disciplined "like a human child" to gain respect. They think that an animal has to be made to do things out of fear. If you are a compassionate caring parent you correct with as little intimidation as is needed. If you are an abusive parent, you child are taken from you, and the end result is a child that hates you.
Wade
Vincent,
Lions are genetically hardwired to attack in a group or pride. Tigers and other felines will develop the same personality and behavior of attacking as a group, if raised together from infancy. The other lion's stayed on their seat's out of fear of the attacking lion's. They wanted no part of getting the snot beat out of them. Watch a wild life movie at a pride of animals killing prey. Some are right in the middle, leading the charge, and some stay on the fringes out of harms way, and hope to get a piece of meat as it flies through the air. Animals have personalities as different and as distinct as the personalities of man. It is why you can't learn to train animals from an "instructional booklet". You would fill a dozen volumes just trying to explain the different personalities that may be faced. Again the most difficult personality is the "contact" animal because you don't know what he is going to do, because he has never done it. You just have to be vigilant and quick when he does make his move.
Wade
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