THE BALLOON MAN

Note to the circus: Leave the bullhooks behind

 

 

Elephants on Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Moonlight Animal Walk to Staples Center.

 (Los Angeles Times / July 18, 2011)
By Carla Hall
from-- latimes.com
October 26, 2012
If the Los Angeles Board of Animal Services Commissioners has its way, the circus may not be coming to town -- at least, not with elephants and maybe not with any exotic animals. The commissioners recommended this week that the L.A. City Council consider an array of options designed to discourage if not outright ban the use of elephants or all exotic animals performing in traveling shows and exhibitions.

The commissioners laid out a number of variations on this idea. The city could forbid a circus or show from having exotic and wild animals performing. This would not only do away with elephant acts, it would have outlawed graffiti artist Banksy’s controversial 2006 performance-art stunt featuring a live elephant standing for hours in a warehouse space decorated to look like a living room.

The city could go further and prohibit a show from even bringing the animals inside the city limits.  

Or the city could just ban use of the bullhook, or ankus, which is a long stick with a sharp spike at one end.  At its most benign, it’s used as a guide to lead elephants, and at its worst, it is used to push, prod and strike elephants to get them to do what the trainer wants.

In the world of zoos, bullhooks are increasingly old-school, a tool to frighten an animal into submission and a remnant of a time when keepers used it to intimidate the animals when they had unrestricted contact with them.
read more:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-circus-leave-the-bullhooks-behind-20121025,0,7240822.story