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Early Addition
Last night the Ringling Brothers circus arrived in Manhattan. As usual, the elephants did the final leg of the journey to Madison Square Garden on foot, because they're a little too big to truck or train into the city. The running was a delayed by a car accident on the Queens side of the Midtown Tunnel-- word from the cops on the scene was that the police had to clean up a bunch of glass before it was safe for the elephants to walk. By 1:30am, the scene on the Manhattan side was totally crazy-- after waiting for an hour in the freezing cold, most of the onlookers and reporters were totally giddy with hypothermia.
As the elephants ran up 34th street from 3rd Avenue to MSG, they were surrounded by hundreds of spectators, photographers, and PETA protestors. We've never been to the running of the bulls in Pamplona, but this has got to be a close second for excitement. At one point, a news cameraman fell off the media truck, and came about five feet from getting squashed by the lead elephant. The protestors added a surreal element-- if anything, they seemed louder than last year, and more aggressive. The elephants seemed pretty unperturbed by the noise, but the cops and handlers definitely seemed disturbed.
Whatever your feelings about the circus, this is one of our favorite New York events. If you've never seen it, definitely check it out next year.
More coverage:
Our set at Flickr
YouTube video by Frank
Video by FromtheCabin
Photos by SelfishCrab
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That picture is worth a thousand words.
Poor animals.
A circus handler or maybe a disguised PETA militia-man (a woman as big and as strong as an ox) assaulted me by grabbing my arm and thrusting be towards the sidewalk near 6th avenue, I nearly dropped my camera as she she kept trying to drag me (I got a good smack across her head (self defense)... I yelled for a cop standing near by and he saw the "assault" and grabbed the woman with force and said, "we treat our fellow New Yorkers with repect, this does not include assaulting them with your back-country southern bullshit. Now, if I see you touch one more person, you're gonna spend a night in the tombs with felony assault charges"... (this all happened in a few split seconds), but the ox-woman backed off.
After reading that post, I now have newfound respect for the NYPD. (Most of them anyway)
Ox woman you say... She’s Probably a PETA member and/or an Ultra Feminist Lesbian.
That photo is really sad.
after waiting outside forever and running back and forth between the apartment 4 times, those damn elephants finally came and then they were gone in 45 seconds. It was short lived magic and my eye was in my camera the entire time
WHY DON'T WE PARADE HUMANS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE JUNGLE AND SEE HOW WE REACT!
THIS DISGUSTS ME.
ALL IN A SHOW FOR SELFISH HUMANS.
ELAPHANTS DON'T BELONG TROTTING DOWN THE STREETS OF NEW YORK OR ANY OTHER STREET FOR THAT MATTER
Oh I wish A.
And let those Humans be between the 13-17 age bracket.
Female of course.
this comment thread has now jumped the shark...
Look at the elephant's bloodshot eyes. The entire idea of parading these creatures through a freezing, urban environment during the early morning hours is just tragic.
I'm no PETA activist, but it truly is a shame that Gothamist only offers a one-sided view of this tradition.
When I was in the Brownies, eons ago (do the Girl Scouts still have Brownies?) I got taken to the circus. I was so excited...and within minutes after it all started, bored to tears. Even the animals looked bored. The preformers all had safety nets. BOR-ing....ho hum.
Why don't you all get off your high horses and enjoy something for a change. The parade of elephants and other animals should be something fun and enjoyable for all in NYC and should bring us together to experience something totally unique and special one night out of the entire year. When else do you get to see elephants parading down City streets? Zebras too? I, for one, had a great time and love to watch every year. Thanks, Ringling Bros., for a fun and unique night. I'll be back next year.
Adam does that Elephant LOOK like its enjoying its evening stroll?
But hey, who cares about the Animals. As long as YOU get a kick out of it.
You said- Whatever your feelings about the circus, this is one of our favorite New York events. If you've never seen it, definitely check it out next year.
I say- These social, sensitive, intelligent and endangered creatures used in circuses spend most of their days in boxcars, cages, or chains. They are trained to perform unnatural tricks through the use of standard circus industry tools including billhooks, chains, and electric prods. If you are an example of NY than 9-11 did not wipe out enough of you. Apparently only when people like you are gone will the elephants once again walk the earth in peace and dignity?
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You said- Whatever your feelings about the circus, this is one of our favorite New York events. If you've never seen it, definitely check it out next year.
I say- These social, sensitive, intelligent and endangered creatures used in circuses spend most of their days in boxcars, cages, or chains. They are trained to perform unnatural tricks through the use of standard circus industry tools including billhooks, chains, and electric prods. If you are an example of NY than 9-11 did not wipe out enough of you. Apparently only when people like you are gone will the elephants once again walk the earth in peace and dignity?
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hey, great 9-11 tie-in, marilyn. i'm not pro-elephant-torture, nor am i in favor of the use of animals for human amusement generally, but i don't think it amounts to complicity in their captivity to watch these elephants walk across manhattan. it's free, and i wouldn't pay to see it. i'm certainly not going to pay to go to the circus, either; it's much cheaper to pay bums to wrestle each other. the great thing about this event is that willfully ignorant &/or apathetic members of the general public AND socially aware PETA protesters alike can enjoy the spectacle of PT Barnum's publicity stunt together. What's more, there's a symbiosis between the two groups that emerged last night: renegade PETA protesters' willingness to exercise civil disobedience and break police lines in order to get their signs and slogans into people's elephant photos & videos allows "normal" people to run along with and get closer to the elephants too; in turn, the smiling general public provide cover and plausible deniability to the radical element who might want to provoke a cop-trampling elephant stampede. No, the probably-drunk revelers who gathered last night to see the elephant walk are innocent; blame those damn kids who nag their parents into actually buying tickets.
The place to watch is in Queens. I got to watch them be unloaded from the train, decorated with their fancy headresses, and then walk with them through the deserted streets for a couple of blocks. That's the way to do it.
You should read accounts of various circus elephants who have rampaged. Interestingly, who do they kill? Random passersby? No -- their trainers. Says something about the abuse they undergo. Elephants are not pets -- they're complex, sophisticated, intelligent wild animals. Support The Elephant Sanctuary (http://www.elephants.com), which rehabilitates eles after years of abuse in circuses and zoos.
If that ain't a sad picture, I don't know what is.
The circus sucks from the small box of popcorn for $5 to those silly dangerous "circus lights".
Marilyn Hall, let me first commend you on your third grade grammar, well done.
Second, shame on you for referencing 9/11 to this event, and scolding New Yorkers for not being "sympathetic post 9/11 New Yorkers". Please define, in 7th grade grammar, (I know you can do it) what a New Yorker should be like post 9/11. It will help me better understand how to counter-react in public next time I see a "liberal" militant douche-bag people-killer PETA propagandist screaming about how meat is murder.
How do they get the Elephants out of NYC? I never remember hearing anything about them going back through the tunnel - either one.
For the activists out there you missed your chance - we were by the tunnel exit and there were reporters asking for any activists to make an obligatory statement (their words, not mine).
whether you are an animal rights activist or not, please check out circuses.org. gothamist, an age-old tradition is indeed wonderful to enjoy, however some updating in ringling bros.' treatment of their animals needs to take place ASAP. if we continue to support them by attending their performances & not say anything about the way their animals are treated, ringling bros. will continue to abuse their animals. if you enjoy looking at the elephants parade through the city, then you should at the very least care about their welfare, simply put!
Perhaps activists should be more proactive with the public rather than the Circus itself. Educate us, not them. Last nights activists activity was a joke, it was media whoring themselves for no one. maybe a better tactic would be to go stand outside while the circus is in session or write letters to the state and federal governments. Screaming at workers who guide and train elephants will do you no good.
What's hillarious about this thread is how many people are simply accusing ANYONE who criticizes this as being a member of PETA. PETA is a bunch of lunatics. And you don't have to be a PETA member to look at these animals and realize this is not a good thing.
The march is a uniquely NYC event, and it's uniquely cruel. And it's shocking it's still happening nowadays when zoos and other animl institutions are making adjustments to their displays to make their own animals feel more comfortable.
Now back to the polarized bile-fest of self-importance.
wow. i made the mistake of watching the video at circuses.org - it's pretty much what you'd expect, but also as you'd suspect, you feel so much worse after watching it than you thought you would. unreal. i mean, torturing humans? bad, but somewhat understandable - meaning, i can see how someone could do it, through rage, psycho-sexual power-tripping, etc. But torturing helpless animals?? I mean, you just would think that the people doing the beating, some how, some way, would be able to say, "yeah - this is wrong".
Maybe they would think of the dog they had when they were younger, and how an elephant reminds you of that 13+ year-old dog that's on his last legs - all creaky with arthritis - lookin generally sad, but still manages a wag of the tail when their owner arrives, and then the dog just goes back to lay down on floor - maybe to take another doze. That's what these lumbering giants - elephants - seem like to me. Just harmless, helpless animals.
These people are just beating them on the snout and in the 'shins' and hooking them with that claw and prodding them with that electric cattle prod. Wow. it'll give you the chills. The elephants are screaming and stuff - I mean, it'll give you nightmares, man.
I'd like to respectfully request that the author of this post drop a link to Circuses.org in the main part of the post - along with all the other video coverage (YouTube, etc.). I mean, like the author said, whatever side you come down on, let's have it out, right? Let's let people decide based on the facts. Let's not let this be Iraq War III where we only get the hero stories. If there are dead and starving and suffering children, then let's see it all. If there are elephants getting their asses kicked in a way, really, that would make even Republicans say, "whoa, nelly!" - then let's see it all. We're all grown-ups, here.
One of the things that I've been able to get from reading different political points of view from my own is the sense that peoples' feelings matter - and it's not enough to say 'F them' just because you don't think it's a big deal.
I'd like to see Gothamist do its part to educate us all. We're huge fans of NYC, and we are just not impressed with elephants walking into downtown NYC when it comes at the price of what those poor elephants have to go through. If they were beating chained dogs like they do to these elephants, would we still want to poor out into the streets of Manhattan to applaud the majesty of those brutalized dogs?
Let's just have it out. If people really want to support the circus after learning what those elephants and the other animals (Zebras are notorious for being independent, so i suspect they get brutalized at least as bad as the elephants) go through, that's their prerogative, but right now, enough people don't know what's going on in these animal barn 'training camps' or whatever they call them.
^Well put.
Jake, how about some "beautiful" footage from circuses.org about what REALLY goes on?
Elephants have the largest brain of any animal alive.
They also have one of the largest penises.
It is unwise to upset them...
"As usual, the elephants did the final leg of the journey to Madison Square Garden on foot, because they're a little too big to truck or train into the city."
Actually, Jake, they're not too big to put on trucks. In fact when Ringling was in Norfolk, VA (where PETA is based) several weeks ago, they loaded the elephants into trucks and drove them to the arena rather than marching them in, which they've done every year prior to this. The week before in Richmond, and the week after in Hampton, the elephants did the usual march through the city. But in Norfolk, where PETA activists were waiting with video cameras to document the event, they made the unheard of move of putting the animals on trucks (it took them 5 trips back and forth - hours and hours of the police's time wasted).
Clearly Ringling has something to hide.
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When is this year's (2007's) elephant walk? Thank you!