It was said that the clown, wearing full make-up, shoved a female protester who was taking pictures of him, causing the camera to hit her in the face.

That's a hardcore clown,

The irony of ironies would be a runaway elephant/tiger/lion killing those protestors.

Ahh I can just picture that on Maximum Exposure.

The irony of ironies would be a runaway elephant/tiger/lion killing those protestors.

If by irony of ironies you mean that the two ironies in your post cancel each other out making a non-irony, then I agree.

However, I will say that I'm not a fan of circus animal usage. We aren't talking about a very good life for these animals...all so a bunch of rednecks can sit around and ooooo and ahhhhh under a big farking tent. I don't have a problem with animal training or animal captivity when the animals have adequate space, shelter and exercise.

Clowns have a strategic advantage: their mode of transportation.

A clown can roll up on the scene with 50 members of his posse in the same car. After beatings have been applied, they can barrel back into their car and speed away.

How can you compete with that?

tonesskin
rednecks are the only people who go to the circus? Do you have to insult others to make yourself feel better?

I don't have a problem with animal training or animal captivity when the animals have adequate space, shelter and exercise.

like a rodeo?

While I don't agree with animals being used in the circus or with clowns... well dammit, I hate protesters that much more.

Why hassle the clown by taking his picture? He's just doing his job. He didn't go down to where the protester works and take pictures of her.

If some damn hippy came along and started taking my picture at work, damn right I'd be angry too. Angry enough to shove them and cause minor injury!

rednecks are the only people who go to the circus?

Mostly. Yeah.

Do you have to insult others to make yourself feel better?

Yeah.

like a rodeo?

I would argue that a rodeo and the circus are very, very different. I don't like rodeo because it bores me, but I think circuses yield more ethical concerns of captivity issues and use of nondomesticated animals way out of their environment.

While I don't agree with animals being used in the circus or with clowns... well dammit, I hate protesters that much more.

Absolutely. The best way to get circuses to stop is not to put yourself in a cage or harass people. It is to not go to the circus when it rolls into your town. And you won't be missing much. Except for sweet, sweet mullets.

stirfrybry still loves the circus? wtf

Actually in the US most circuses perform in downtown areas of large cities. The attendance is low in the redneck range and high in the yuppie range bringing along their spoiled brats who cry and want everything. (i.e Veruca Salt) REdnecks don't need to go to the circus to see animals they can always wait for the county fair which is more humane and treats the animals really well just before they are sold off to be someone dinner or breeding stock.

Tonesskin

I feel sorry for your lack of childhood. I guess your parents took you to PETA rallies instead.

I feel sorry for your lack of childhood. I guess your parents took you to PETA rallies instead.

Why? Because I have an opinion about the circus that is inline with PETAs? I can't stand PETA. I've been to a circus before when I was a kid. It sucked, but still. My parents were the furthest thing from PETA rally-goers.

I feel sorry for your lack of identity. I guess you dictate your morals and opinions on what your parents told you they should be.

However, even if the circus was the most fun thing in the world, it wouldn't justify treatment of animals. I eat meat; fish; would hunt if I had something worthwhile to kill. I have no problems with zoos. But yeah, you're right.

I grew up in the rural South, and believe me, circuses aren't big redneck to-dos.

I probably misused "redneck." I, too, grew up in the south and remember the smaller circuses (and especially fairs, which aren't really circuses) would draw the mulletious people on earth.

On a side note that has more to do with redneck attraction and less with circuses: CHURCH FAIRS. If you live in a small town where you think you know everyone, just go to a church fair. There are people there who come from the woodworks for a chance to ride the "Jack Rabbit" or the 10 foot high ferris wheel. Scary stuff.

I'm off to beat a lion and anally probe an elephant.

RamsesMindWalker:

Tonesskin: I feel sorry for your lack of childhood. I guess your parents took you to PETA rallies instead.


You know what Ramses, as of this morning I would have said the exact same thing, maybe not as rough, but relatively the same sentiment.

Earlier this morning I read the news article concerning the animal handler being killed at an elephant refuge, it piqued my interest. Doing what any other net addict would do, I looked up The Elephant Sanctuary - http://www.elephants.com. After reading about the horrible circumstances these elephants had to endure, I was touched and saddened.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a red blooded, steak eating, Texas Republican. Things don't usually get under my skin.

One thing led to another and I ended up on this site:

http://www.circuses.com

Once I saw the video on their homepage, to say I was enraged is an understatement. Will I go to a circus again? Never.

View the video, then come back and tell us you still hold the same opinion.

/now loves elephants
//didn't really care before
///will be purchasing the T-Shirt of said killer elephant, Winkie, from The Elephant Sanctuary

Thirteen or fourteen years ago, a traveling circus set up in Chicago, right next to North Pier. This was just across the street from my apartment building. One morning, just before the circus was to open, a scraggly band of protesters was out in front of the entrance with a few handmade signs about cruel treatment of animals and whatnot. They were still there at around 1 pm that afternoon.

At that point, I approached the group and informed them that there were no animals in Cirque du Soleil. They did not believe me and stayed several more hours until someone must have fact-checked this.

/funny 'cause it's true.

screw animal rights, I like the circus.

Rodeodoc

OF course you did. But you thought it was funny. It wasn't.

I didn't think it was funny. I thought it was realistic.

You have so far been anti-circus, anti-church fair, and anti-rodeo. What's the common thread?

The common theme is that peoeple all have different tastes in what they like and don't like. For one, I'm not anti-church fair nor anti-rodeo. I think the circus is boring. You consider it fun, more power to you. I think church fairs are an absolute blast for people watching. And I said I have no problems with rodeos, I just don't watch them. I don't watch them because they aren't for me. So what?

You're anti-fun.

I am sure that if you polled enough adults, you would find that the average person finds the circus anything but FUN.

You probably prefer to sit on your rocking chair on your porch and yell at those damn kids to get off your lawn.

Yes, you have me figured out. I don't watch rodeos, don't like circuses, and enjoy people watching at church fairs--so clearly I'm an old man sitting on my porch all day.

What world do you come from where all there is to do is go to the circus, watch rodeo, go to church fairs, or sit on the porch yelling at kids?

Unavailable for comment

/could have been worse
//could have been mimes

Wild Bluebonnet

As I was waiting for the video to load, I read the text next to it. I got up to "...bullhook, with its sharp metal hook and spiked end, tears through [the elephant's] sensitive skin" before I started laughing.

This is a bullhook:

(please note, the pic is from "circuswatch.com", so it's not altered to make it appear less sharp.)

As for the "sensitive" elephant's skin- it's from "0.5 - 1 inch thick" (http://www.thailandelephant.org/eng/article.php3?no=7)

So, two lies right there.

I didn't bother to watch the video after that.

ygc123: /funny 'cause it's true.


Not just funny. HILARIOUS.


/except for the whole "keeping french-canadians in cages" practice, but I'm for that.

fredklein:
I didn't bother to watch the video after that.

I would reconsider watching it, the bull hook is the least of your worries.

Meanwhile .....

I'll be sporting my "Winkie the Killer Elephant" T-shirt and wearing it proud.

Fart Machine

Wrong. Could've been much worse.



Fixed it for ya.

Clowns are evil! Didn't any of you watch "It"?

Of course, the idea of PETA folks being forced to perform circus animal acts in place of the critters would be a pleasant sight.

When circus clowns get into brawls with animal rights activists, everybody wins

That's one of the most perfectly crafted headlines that I've ever seen in Fark. Kudos.

reversed backwards?

Wild Bluebonnet
I would reconsider watching it, the bull hook is the least of your worries.

I'm not interested in propaganda. The video's probably 1) staged (animal rights groups HAVE been caught staging videos of 'abuse' before!), or 2) Taken out of context or 3) sausage making ("People who enjoy eating sausage and obeying the law should not watch either being made." -Otto von Bismarck)

You see all those poor elephants chained to the ground with, er, chains?

Pretty cruel huh? Well, I cannot say I'm an expert on Elephant training, but I did watch a Discovery special (haha that's such a great qualifier) that showed the Indian (as in from India, in India) trainers had to chain a Bull elephant down so as to avoid it hurting itself, when it's in rut (male heat). Maybe that's what happened, maybe not. Anyway:

I'm not a red neck. I don't find the circus entertaining, though I feel that with stricter enforcement of animal cruelty laws, they should be left alone otherwise.

Clowning Around

makes elephants

pound

Wild Bluebonnet
good for you!

I took part in a circus protest once and the clowns were definitely crazier than any of protestester I've ever seen. The best part was when two of them dressed up in animals costumes (a lion and a bear), came out and pretended to beat eachother in front of us (and the crowd of children). Too funny...

Hippies fighting clowns? Sounds like WWE.

You are awful to mock poor whites.

A great number of people attend circus performances, not just poor people. And if you're not in the Social Register, don't be an elitist.

And something tells me that you're not in that. You're just a pretentious loser who doesn't have much else but a computer and a psuedo- education: who likes to ridicule other people whom you believe have less class than you. But since you're exhibiting no class at all- I think you don't really have the ability to look down on anyone else from this point.

If you hate the circus and want to put down someone- I think that the upper class white people who OWN the circus or the animals in question are the ones you should be pointing fingers towards. But you'd never do that... That does not suit you.

I hate clowns. I only like the circus for the high-wire acts and the threat of impending human doom.

There is a search engine called GoodSearch, it's Yahoo-powered and is designed like google. Best of all, you can pick your own charity and everytime you search a small donation will go to your choice. I picked the Elephant Sanctuary in Tenn., since Winkie, her fellow elephants and especially her caretakers have certainly hit a rough patch, in light of recent events. They're doing good work and those poor animals have earned some good treatment, even if accidents like this are going to happen, as a result.

macdaddy357: Hippies fighting clowns? Sounds like WWE.

Doink concurs.