Practice Feature Story

 

When people think of the circus they think of these massive and beautiful animals, such as the elephants. Now, we've all heard the stereotypical "elephants are scared of mice" and " elephants have a good memory" but what if that wasn't always the case. Thomas J. Serle is almost 60 years old and he has been in the circus business since he was a child because "Both my folks were Circus people". He claims that the stereotypes are just that... stereotypes. Not only does Serle give us insight into how elephants behave but he also tells us the poor conditions that the elephants are kept in. 

Thomas J. Serle was a former acrobat for the circus before his terrible injury. Now he works for Parker Bros. Circus as the elephant caretaker. During a conversation, Serle has with a reporter he mentions how many people believe that elephants are afraid of mice. He claims that the idea is ridiculous because when they put the elephants in pens, especially in the winter, they never try to run and hide from all of the mice in their pens. He then goes on to say that all of the elephants share the same cage throughout the entire winter. Serle takes care of 10 elephants daily from 2 p.m to 7:30 p.m which means, that those 10 elephants are forced to share one cage for the entire winter.  If that weren't bad enough, Serle mentions that there is plenty of mice that get into their hay. After he briefly mentions these poor conditions he quickly changes the subject and debunks another myth; "Elephants got a good memory." He says that for the most part, the elephants in Parker Bros. Circus are "so dumb" that they can't remember the tricks that they are taught.

https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780199846412/student/chapter17/exercise/ex5/ <- Where I got the story (number 5)

https://www.dw.com/en/circus-elephant-kills-early-morning-walker-in-southwest-germany/a-18515628 ^ Where I got the picture from