Elephants free essay sample

Have you ever been to the circus and seen the amazing tricks the elephants and other animals do? They may look cool but these elephants aren’t born knowing how to do these tricks, they are tortured to learn them with whips, bullhooks, chains, bush knives, ear halters, and ropes to control them to do whatever the mahout (trainers) wants them to do. These wild animals are not meant to be tamed but to live a happy life in the wild. 1Bears, elephants, tigers, and other animals do not voluntarily ride bicycles, stand on their heads, balance on balls, or jump through rings of fire. They dont perform these and other difficult tricks because they want to; they perform them because theyre afraid of what will happen if they dont. For animals in circuses, there is no such thing as positive reinforcement—only varying degrees of punishment and deprivation. We will write a custom essay sample on Elephants or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page To force them to perform these meaningless and physically uncomfortable tricks, trainers use whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks, and other painful tools of the trade. In the Ringling Bros. circus, elephants are beaten, hit, poked, prodded, and jabbed with sharp hooks, sometimes until bloody. Ringling breaks the spirit of elephants when theyre vulnerable babies who should still be with their mothers. Unsuspecting parents planning a family trip to the circus dont know about the violent training sessions with ropes, bullhooks, and electric shock prods that elephants endure. Heartbreaking photos reveal how  Ringling Bros. circus  trainers cruelly force baby elephants to learn tricks, and its not through a reward system, as they claim. The picture above is of circus trainers bounding this poor elephant to ropes for â€Å"training†. These elephants never forget the abuse they go through, they are one of the smartest animals. Elephants get along very well with humans as long as they are being treated right, when you hear about elephants attacking circus trainers or escaping its only because they are treated so terribly and they eventually decide to do something about it. How would you feel if someone was torturing you 24/7 and you even had to sleep with chains around your feet, you would probably do the same and try to fight back. 2The Elephant Sanctuary in Hoenwald Tennessee is set on 2700 acres of land and is designed for both Asian and African elephants. There is a 25 acre lake, 9000 square foot heated state of the art barn for the animals. This is an overall amazing place for rescued elephants and is for them to live just like they would in the wild. Tarra the elephant was born in 1974 in Burma Asia, she was captured from the wild that same year and preformed in zoos and circuses until March 3rd 1995 after performing for 21 years she retired and moved into the elephant sanctuary. She stands at 8’ 2†, weighs 8700 pounds, and she loves watermelon. Tarra was seen many times holding a stick with her trunk drawing in the dirt and would spend wrestles nights doing so on the floor in her barn. They eventually gave her paint brushes and she would enjoy painting and sticking her trunk in the paint and blowing it everywhere, but each piece of artwork was never finished until she added her very distinctive signature. In 2003 bella wondered on to the sanctuary property and instantly became best friends with Tarra, they were in separable, Bella would even roll over on her back and let Tarra pet her belly with her Giant foot. They would play in the snow together, swim in the ponds, and just explore together. The size difference did not matter to them, They were the ultimate best of friends. When Bella had gotten a spinal cord injury she couldn’t move her legs and couldn’t even move her tail, for the next three weeks Tarra stood in the same spot outside the office just waiting for Bella, so they decided to bring Bella out to see Tarra and Bellas tail started to wag and Tara was very excited, they continued to do this till Bella was able to walk again. In 2011 Bella had passed away from what they think was a coyote attack, Tarra brought her back to the barn and stayed by her side. Work Sited: 1 http://www. peta. org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/circuses. aspx 2 http://www. elephants. com/index. php