Monday, July 24, 2006

Jurassic Park!

Looks like all the excitement in Tennessee has settled down. The Officials have deemed the unfortunate event to have been an accident and Winkie is genuinely sorry.
Rather than say "Who in Hell is responsible for letting those people set up shop in our State and bring in all these dangerous elephants without first checking out their credentials?" they simply took the safe way out.
It appears that Mr. Blais injuries were an accident as well.
There is also a blame to be placed on the U.S.D.A. who engeneered this whole fiasco in the first place by yielding to PETA pressure.

Anyway, it's onward and upward, I came across a set of very interesting 1937 Dan Rice Circus pictures for tomorrows blog.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

According to the Huntsville, Alabama News, Jo Ann Burke was killed my the elephant while hoseing her down. The Bull knocked he down and stepped on her, killing her almost instantly. I presume the man was attacked while trying to restrain the bull. There are rules about people flying an airplane until they have a license and are checked out. It seems any damned idiot can decide all of a sudden they are an expert with elephants. John Lewis

Anonymous said...

I had heard all the mans experiences was as a shoveler until buckley taught him how to care for elephants. I think he was still a teenager at that time.

Anonymous said...

If a pit bull attacked a neighborhood child and the child died, the area where it occured would be considered a crime scene. There would be yellow crime tape, FBI and Crime Scene Investigators would be crawling all over the place.

Shouldn't Buckley's place be considered a crime scene too? Perhaps Winkie was despondent because nobody ever taught her how to roller skate. Hmmm....Hmmmm.

Anonymous said...

TARRA stood on those monster skates in terror. Never did learn to skate. Buckley never learned how to care for TARRA either. Others tried with TARRA and buckley took credit. That did not last long,, Hence,peta the sanctury and the big bucks. The woman is not stupid about hard, cold cash, just elephants.

Anonymous said...

It say's here that it could have been a result of Post Tramatic Stress Disorder. http://www.elephants.com/pr/joanna_burke_7_24_06.htm I once got PTSD from cookhouse.- BJ

Buckles said...

I thought I had heard just about every alibi known to man and now PMS, an absolute stroke of genius. Maybe they can get Dr. Phil as an expert witness.

Anonymous said...

I don't know anything about the TES people, other than what is on their website or from this blog. However; I gather from one who really knows (Buckles) that they owners are not totally honest and forthcoming with information. Why won't they let people in to "see" the miracles they have worked? While I agree with the concept, like Scott's place, these are still wild animals and some have killed or hurt people before, so what can they expect? I feel sad for Joanna's family and friends, I really do. This is a very sad and useless way to die, but she chose to take the risks and Lord knows their are risks involved with wild animals.

Anonymous said...

As far as the boy "Scott" is concerned his early training years on elephants was at the African Lion Safari Charlie Grays place. He worked could work elephants well, then he left and joined Buckley in starting up TES, for the record.

Anonymous said...

When I go to bed at night, and start thinking about some of the things I have done in my life, I feel like there must be, and has been an angel watching over me.

I remember the first elephant I ever owned. I was around 22. Her name was Barry. She was the Barry Goldwater mascot. I would come in at night all lushed up, go out sit on her shoulder as she laid there, and I talk to her. I later learned she had picked up a guy who worked for me, and threw him about 20 feet. I sold her to Joe Horwatz and the Vasquez Brothers. I had to ride with the haulers, who took her to Laredo.

We loaded her in a horse trailer that had been raised, just to haul the elephant. I knew nothing about elephants. She would start rocking the trailer. If I went back, and sat in the hay in front of her, she would calm down. I rode a long way in the horse trailer with her, just to keep her calm.

She was dropped of with the Fuentes herd in Circo Union in Mexico City. I would walk through the menagerie top at night, again having been drinking, petting all of the elephants (about 21 of them). I was never harmed, which just goes to prove the good Lord most of the time, looks after and protects fools and idiots.
John Lewis

Anonymous said...

Re ?? on your main screen, I think TES gets around Tennessee Wildlife and maybe U.S. Fish&Game laws too by never exhibiting.

USDA wanted the threat of confiscation, but there are so few places to send elephants, the teeth of the Animal Welfare Act are limited to attacking people with damaged reps (fairly or unfairly damaged) -- so it's ironic that now we condemn an elephant with a "reputation" for disliking people several times in the past 40 years. Keeps the public in the habit of branding someone on the basis of rumors rather than facts.

One commenter said they could find 100 online reports of elephants attacking handlers -- but does it matter any more which stories are true?

PETA claims 59 elephant handler deaths in a period of years when newspapers say 9 deaths -- and no one has good lists of names (even place names) dates, which elephant, nor are they sorting them out into accidents vs. attacks. If 30% of the injuries for the whole country came from the same barn, just for example, not all animals/handlers would share the blame equally.

Everyone wants privacy protected, in every incident, but propaganda makers use blurry statistics.
Repeating the same lie 100 times, then saying "Look what a simple Google search turned up!" is one of the AR movement's techniques.

You circus history blog masters help show people have names, elephants have names, most stories have witnesses, memories/rumors sometimes have flaws, and there's a living treasure trove of people who know from experience. Thanks.
Lotliza

Anonymous said...

So far I have not read anywhere where peta has commented on this killing. Usually they are right there before the reporters even. Their own nest was soiled this time and not a word from them. We are getting storys only from those who have the most to lose if the real facts are made public. Since when was fair play ever a part of tes!