Baby Elephants, Bound And Broken: This Is How Circuses Trained Elephants
An elephant trainer with the biggest circus in the United States—the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which folded in 2017 and has since returned as an animal-free show—had a change of heart and wanted to “do the right thing.”
Join him as he takes us through the process of how he, alongside many other trainers, forced elephants to learn how to perform unnatural tricks for “entertainment.”
“These are classic pictures of professional elephant-training,” according to one of the trainers in the photographs.
Breaking the Mother-Calf Bond
Even though female elephants stay with their mothers for life and males until their early teens, the first step in training elephants to perform tricks was to break the bond between babies and their mothers. When they were 18 to 24 months old, calves were roped by all four legs and tied by the neck to an “anchor elephant” who led them away from their mothers. The frantic moms were restrained by having all four legs chained to the wall while the babies tried to run away and fight, and the ropes were put on.
The babies took one last look at their mothers and were dragged away.
Breaking the Elephants’ Spirit
Next, the baby elephants were mentally and physically broken. All four legs were tied to a bar so that all they could do for up to 23 hours a day for up to six months was stand on a concrete floor. This is emotionally and physically devastating to young Asian elephants, who want only to learn how to be an elephant alongside their family. In their natural habitats, they would spend nearly all their waking hours walking, grazing, dust-bathing, swimming, and socializing.
Crying to Be Free
The ropes used to restrain the baby elephants were often tied so tightly around their legs that the animals could incur deep and painful lesions. Their cries, which could be heard from outside the barn, intensified when they saw their mothers walk into the barn.
No Will to Fight
After up to six long months of fighting their restraints, these once curious and energetic elephants were broken. When they stopped trying to run away from their trainers during daily walks, circus training began in earnest.
The baby elephants were bound by ropes and forced to learn how to perform a “down salute.”
And to lie down on command.
And to sit on tubs.
After a year or more of psychological and physical torment, the baby elephants were ready for the road. Every elephant used in circuses in the U.S. today is geriatric and has endured decades of abusive training, confinement, and forced performances.
Life on the Road
They’re transported from place to place for weeks on end.
Regardless of how exhausted the elephants are, the show goes on.
They spend the majority of their lives in chains, cramped trailers, and arena backrooms.