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    FluterDaleRebecca "Burt" Rose
    5/01/14 12:17pm

    Meanwhile, this place continuously has feel-good stories about rescued elephants if you're in the mood to have water leak spontaneously out of your eye holes.

    Up yours, Barnum. And up yours, too, Bailey.

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      ElChupacabraFluterDale
      5/01/14 1:00pm

      Holy shit, this is 1.5 hour from my house. HOW have I never heard of it?!?! Weekend plans: set.

      I visited the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka once, and it was wonderful but also kind of sad. It was great that the elephants got a safe home, but the mahouts still used bull hooks and made them do labor. Twice a day, they bring the elephants down to play and bathe in the river, and they all sort of act like kids, splashing and spraying each other. Elephants are awesome.

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      FluterDaleElChupacabra
      5/01/14 2:03pm

      They're not a zoo, so they don't allow people to visit, but they do frequently have open houses, and will sometimes have educational events off-site.

      There's a documentary somewhere about two former circus elephants being reunited at the sanctuary after 20+ years apart that always makes me tear up. There's another about an elephant they saved from a performance career that was expected to die from foot-rot, who ended up making friends with a dog and roaming the entire sanctuary on the daily with its new friend.

      My favorite is an elephant that passed, probably about a decade ago. (Gender forgotten. I'm going with she.) She liked to draw with sticks in the dirt, so the sanctuary employees gave her paints and a paintbrush. One of her scribbles is hanging in my living room. (One of my douchiest acquaintances used to puzzle over the obvious French influence and post-minimalist blah blah blah until I finally broke down and told him the artist was an elephant.)

      They're a great organization, even if they aren't open to the public.

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    pussygalore134Rebecca "Burt" Rose
    5/01/14 12:16pm

    A spokesperson for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey called the ban "unnecessary" and suggested it would likely force the cancellation of circus activities in Los Angeles.

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      Rebecca "Burt" Rosepussygalore134
      5/01/14 12:18pm

      Yeah, exactly. Have fun doing your circus in Palmdale.

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      50 Posts of GreyRebecca "Burt" Rose
      5/01/14 12:23pm

      Palmdale IS the circus.

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    BrightEyesRebecca "Burt" Rose
    5/01/14 12:21pm

    If the ban is "unnecessary" then why does Ringling Bros. need to cancel circus activities in Los Angeles? It sounds like they just admitted they need to use these devices on their animals and without they can not control them. Hmmmm.

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      Rebecca "Burt" RoseBrightEyes
      5/01/14 12:49pm

      There you go, using that stupid "logic" stuff again. Didn't your mother warn you about that?

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      BrightEyesRebecca "Burt" Rose
      5/01/14 12:57pm

      Does anybody listen to their mother?

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    VikrumRebecca "Burt" Rose
    5/01/14 6:02pm

    Wait, i'm sorry, you only just did this? And you're giving them 3 years to effect it?

    America: what the fuck is wrong with you?

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      VikrumVikrum
      5/01/14 6:03pm

      Also it's only in LA? THE FUCK GUYS.

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    Space_RockerRebecca "Burt" Rose
    5/01/14 12:06pm

    They need three fucking YEARS to decide how to stop using fucking pitch forks and shit? What the goddamn fuck?! And fuck you, Ringling Bros. spokesperson. If you're so concerned about the cancellation of circus activities (unlikely, btw), you put on that sparkly gear, try to balance on a ball and have handlers maim YOU for a while when your performance isn't up to snuff.

    Oh, this makes me fucking furious. I'm glad a precedent is set that "hey, maybe we shouldn't beat and torture animals", but the delivery on the message is weak and they really missed an opportunity to have some real, lasting action.

    GIF
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      SiriOnFireSpace_Rocker
      5/01/14 1:55pm

      I still prefer the cat shoving everything off the dresser, but this is a very worthy, awesome runner up for people who would like to change it up a bit.

      Also, circuses with (big) animals need to cease to exist because of non-attendance over animal cruelty. I don't care if the handlers love them, hug them every night, there is no way this life is acceptable for them.

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      Space_RockerSiriOnFire
      5/01/14 1:58pm

      Yes to your second point. Even when I was a kid, I didn't feel right about it and never went to the circus because of the animal angle. I didn't understand WHY it made me uncomfortable at that time, I just knew that it did.

      To your first point, I almost used the cat one, haha. I thought the ferret better captured my rage, though.

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    hoitytoityRebecca "Burt" Rose
    5/01/14 12:10pm

    Good. Now if only they'd get rid of all circuses and approve an ban on all exotic animals federally as well as jailtime and a fine for anyone who violates it.

    Animal rights and welfare are still largely unrecognized by both the government and the average citizen. I absolutely believe we'll look back 200 years from now at how ass-backwards we were with respect to animals, treating them as dispensable and disposable property instead of a living creatures whose capacity for love, pain, and suffering science is corroborating more every day.

    Oh, and the antiobiotics in our food supply. Let's not forget that people's desire for cheap plentiful meat (Americans spend less on food, esp. meat, than almost any other country in the world) and companies' greed has enabled sickening, horrific, and dystopian levels of cruelty on factory farms. And the antibitoics, which are thought to be contributing to post-antibiotic world in which die from painful but mundane illnesses:http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive…

    Did I mention that the EU has banned the import and sale of US meat because in the 90s (I believe) they looked at a bunch of studies and recommendations from scientists suggesting that the prolific use of hormones and esp. antibiotics could have long term and unforeseeable public health consequences?

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      lydkatbrrrhoitytoity
      5/01/14 12:34pm

      Preach.

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      ewoksrulehoitytoity
      5/01/14 8:29pm

      I'm in Canada and I have friends who live close to the US that go across the border to buy milk, eggs and meat because they're cheaper there. I am all kinds of 'NoooO! Do you know what's IN THAT SHIT?'

      They don't listen, sadly. :(

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    XofRebecca "Burt" Rose
    5/01/14 12:19pm
    A spokesperson for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey called the ban "unnecessary" and suggested it would likely force the cancellation of circus activities in Los Angeles.
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      contrarianistRebecca "Burt" Rose
      5/01/14 12:03pm

      Bats and pitchforks? WTF?

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        ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ : Riot GRRR is RUNNING WILDRebecca "Burt" Rose
        5/01/14 12:14pm

        Hopefully they didn't ban the trunkinator.

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          lydkatbrrrRebecca "Burt" Rose
          5/01/14 12:32pm

          Fucking good. Fuck the circus.

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