So, I decided to go to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus elephant walk last week … I wanted to get some new shots while the elephants are still around! … the Circus has decided … to phase out the elephants in the show by 2018.
Not really paying attention to much of anything, I was suddenly alarmed by what I instinctively thought must have been a small bomb. I don’t remember exactly when all this occurred, excepting that it was not terribly long after 911 and I suppose my sensitivities where somewhat tuned to the new reality of “everything has changed.” When I looked up, almost right in front of me, just across the Big Spring canal and immediately beneath the Central Bank parking deck, there was a cloud of dust and what I first thought was smoke rising into the air.
As it happens, it is also the day of the St. Patrick’s day parade in downtown Huntsville. However, as it looked like rain today, I chose not to go downtown to get St. Patrick’s day photos. Instead, I chose this file from the archives because the colors remind me of Pie. I’m not sure which. It’s either a big lushes cherry pie, or it’s a great big ass pepperoni pizza pie.
It seems to me that a lot of people love elephants, and by extension all other wild and exotic animals, many near extinction, because there is a circus and because there are zoos where we can see them and they become real. The conservation and protection of all those magnificent animals depends on public awareness and concern for them. Animals we never see, are animals we never worry about. I can’t answer all the questions about animal treatment and happiness, but it seems to me that PETA is doing more harm than good. And besides, what’s a circus without elephants? Maybe a prelude to a world without elephants?
