"Two elephants from the Circus World Museum were recently caught on video swaying back and forth as a violinist played music. The musician has since uploaded and presented the video as “Elephants Dancing to Violin,” but the truth is much more heartbreaking. Animal experts identify the behavior to be clear signs of “zoochosis,” a mental illness that arises from being forcibly confined for so long.
Elephants are extremely social creatures and require both space to roam and other elephants with whom to interact. In fact, elephants are very similar to people in the way they socialize: celebrating birth, playing with siblings, babysitting for relatives, even grieving death. Circuses are notorious for denying elephants these stimulating activities, which are especially fundamental to a young elephant’s social development. Instead, the highly sensitive creatures are poked with bullhooks, whipped, and beaten until they can perform meaningless tricks. When not performing, the animals are chained in place for hours and prohibited from exploring. The culmination of all these punishments and restrictions is “repetitive, obsessive behavior…never seen in wild elephants,” according to animal rights group PETA.
The “dancing” seen in the musician’s video is not unlike the image of a mental patient rocking back and forth in extreme anxiety. The elephants, “Viola” and “Kelly,” are long-time veterans of the infamously harsh Carson & Barnes Circus, and have begun exhibiting serious symptoms linked to their abuse there.
Please sign the following petition and demand that the United States Department of Agriculture seize these severely traumatized creatures. Torturing elephants into performing is cruel, but mocking their mental illness is simply heartless."
