Another Elephant Beating Caught on Tape

PETA is calling on authorities to take action in the wake of a vicious beating of an elephant traveling with the Cole Bros. Circus. Last week in Lanesboro, Massachusetts, a citizen took video footage and gave an eyewitness account of the beating of an elephant, who was repeatedly hit with a bullhook.

The handler yelled at the elephants to “move up” and “back up” while striking a docile elephant in the face with a bullhook with an audible “whack.” He took a step back and swung the bullhook like a baseball bat, striking the elephant twice on her face and shouting, “Back up!” while she tried to do just that. Still yelling, the handler chased the elephant as she hurried over to some other elephants who were standing nearby.

Says the witness, “This was not an ‘attention getter’, this worker reared back and swung the club with all his might, twice. You could hear the whack as the club struck the elephant. My son and I were shocked. I do not think the worker realized we were there.”

This outrage is business as usual for the circus: We’ve filed three complaints against Cole Bros. Circus about aggressive bullhook use and other abuses in the past six weeks, and each has been accompanied with authenticated video and/or photographs. PETA is calling for local humane authorities to assess the elephant’s condition, and we’ve offered to pay for independent experts to examine her.

Please join us in also asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to have a veterinarian with expertise in elephants immediately inspect the elephants with Cole Bros. and to take all appropriate enforcement action.
Written by Jennifer O’Connor