The Promise~

Circus Elephants
Picture credit: Wikipedia Public Domain
 
 
This morning on our News was an ugly twist to a story that had not been expected.
You may remember the post written months ago about the Ringling Bros. Circus retiring their elephants to a Retirement Sanctuary here in Central  Florida. This was a source of immense  joy for me and many others who love them and have fought to set them free.
We were all looking forward to this day, thrilled that finally, these long abused, beloved animals would find peace, after so many years of pain and misery at the hands of greedy owners.
Not that this particular circus is the only one, all of them treat animals badly, one way or another and all should be shut down. Only Humans should be in any future performances, as they and only they, are WILLING participants in a dirty little business.
But back to the reason for this posting today.
As expected months ago, when the Circus promised to set their elephants free today and send them all to the Retirement Village here in Central Florida.
Today, they were to be finally, forever free.
All well and good. For the moment all was calm, then this morning came the shoe that fell hard on all who love them, yes they will be coming home to us, but with one very ugly BUT…
These beloved, eternally abused, animals will now be even further insulted/assaulted, with testing, experiments and God knows what else, all in the name of Cancer Research.
It is their extreme bad fortune, that elephants do not contract cancer and scientists are fascinated by this for good reason.
Dr. Joshua Schiffman went to Utah in 2008 to do Cancer Research, then in 2012 he went to a lecture that changed his life.
He had observed blood testing being done with Zoo elephants and wanted to investigate the possibilities.
Schiffman got permission to use the blood already being drawn weekly from the Zoo elephants and a new lab idea was born.
Like me, he is a cancer survivor, like me, he lost a beloved dog to cancer, but that is where our similarities end.
If his work/research had stopped here with these younger, not retired elephants, I would not be writing this, but it did not.
It was expanded and became all inclusive and will be done on the retired elephants in Florida.
I do not object to using blood that was being drawn to assure the health of the elephants. What I object to is that now that they are supposedly retired, they could for the first time in perhaps all of their lives, be allowed to rest, relax and just be elephants.
It has bothered me for many years that so many millions of dollars are spent on Cancer Research, yet the cure for it still eludes us.
The return for the expenditures on Cancer Research in this country is meager, if it were a business, it would have been bankrupt years ago.
As a cancer survivor, I do understand the reasoning behind it all, what I am not happy about is that these particular animals have suffered for a lifetime and should be allowed to have some peace. They have earned it, they were promised it.
PETA, the Humane Society, countless animal groups and individuals have been fighting for this for so long and it seemed it was about to come to fruition, like the affect of Black Fish for marine animals, the public pressure has had profound affects on those who continue to do harm to animals.
It actually in both cases, I believe, came down to money or profit, both of these businesses have been losing money because of their treatment of animals in their care and the public outcry to it.
Boycotts and bad press worked on Sea World.
Can we do it again?
I for one would like to try.
As a collective group of animal lovers, can we all now Boycott the Circus, until the retired elephants here in Florida are allowed to do just that, retire!
It is up to us, these suffering animals are at the mercy of their owners and have no voice.
This Blog was created for a singular purpose, to give a voice to those who cannot speak.
Will you join me and speak for them?
They need to keep their promise~
Ringling Bros. Media Line 703 448-4120
 
Places to learn more:
The Ringling Elephants Are Taking Their Final Bow
Forget the elephants: Ringling Bros retiring the big performers
Ringling circus elephants to retire, be used in cancer research at University of Utah
Could elephants hold the key to cure cancer?
Elephants may play a role in preventing cancer, says Brown graduate
Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation