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After the first time I volunteered over in Thailand with those magistrates of evolution, the Asian elephant (specifically with her daughters, their aunties and the oldest bull), I came back home to the United States with newly informed eyes.

Not much had changed here, but things looked very different to me. For one thing, I saw animals in cages everywhere I turned.

I saw them in small pools of water at the aquarium when they had evolved to be in an ocean. I saw them on concrete floors at zoos when their structural health is suited to treading soft earth. I saw them with literal chains around their necks—meant for choking—at the end of four-foot leashes walking around the same three-block city square they had been for all of the previous eight hours, sans enthusiasm, when they need… need… need to run free to be what they are. We all just want the chance to be a fine expression of our species. Oh, how it hurts me to see a living being robbed of its chance to be what it was born to be.

To be fair, I also saw humans through closed windows with shut doors sagging over small desks, proving that, yes, some animals do prefer to be confined—or at least are easily bribed into accepting confinement.

Now I'm a smart cookie. And I've toured with rock bands, dance companies and theatre shows for a cumulative five years of my life. I've played Madison Square Garden sold out twice, hit all 50 states many multiple times and entertained 15,000 young people in Dublin. I don't mean California. So I know better than anyone how hard the traveling lifestyle is. It’s brutal. They have to pay a human a lot of money to endure the full-time life of a traveler.

With my new eyes, suddenly even more stingily aware of the cages we put ourselves and others in, I became fascinated with circuses. I see the cage, know the extreme agitation and stress of lifestyle travel and also now am aware that the circus elephant is almost without exception an Asian elephant—one of three species of which, Elephas maximus maximus from Sri Lanka, is critically endangered.

How is it we think these animals care anything for a "job"? How is it they don't show signs of agitation and stress from the continuous travel? How is it that the government doesn't seem to be enforcing th Animal Welfare Act, CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) and the Endangered Species Act? I'm an educated woman. I know enough to ask the right questions.

But of course I don't really know anything, so get this: I try to find out. I become a journalist and make the phone calls. I scan the emails. I form a partnership with another writer so I can ask the right people my questions. There's nothing more I love in this world than learning. So I don't mind being wrong at all—that's how I learn. And honestly, nothing would delight me more than to be wrong about what I suspect about my world. I can love being wrong.

I just so rarely am. Haha. Ha. Ha.

I got a hold of a human performer in the Cole Bros. Circus and she was super cool. Said she'd talk to me about life in the circus. She said the dancers ride the elephants. I asked her how she felt about that and what kind of training she had to do it. She said very little in terms of elephant handling and thought it could be dangerous. I asked a few more questions (via email) and she kind of just flipped and disappeared, eventually admitting this was a subject she didn't feel she could talk about and I should talk to the elephant keeper.

Great! She introduced me! This was getting cool. I emailed and told the elephant trainer that I was doing a story on opposing viewpoints of elephants in circuses and I needed hers—could I ask her some questions? Yes, with delight, she replied—she was so friendly at first.

Then I sent her the questions… and they were maybe considerably more informed than I think she thought they would be. She flipped and came back at me with venom, accused me of being from PETA, called me some names and that was that.

For the record, I'm not with PETA. I've never worked or volunteered for them. I've never contacted them directly. Although I have donated to many causes, including

• NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)
• Serengeti Foundation
• Center for Biological Diversity
• Witches’ Voice
• Tree People
• Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)
• Carbon Fund
• Elephant Nature Foundation
• Sea Turtle Restoration Project

and I feel strongly about philanthropy, I've never even donated to PETA.

So, wow. I wanted to be wrong about my hunches, but I could see nothing developing that was going to influence me in a really positive direction as far as circuses are concerned. So I built a support team with another writer who had created his own opportunities to catch this story. And I sat in on some email conversations that tell a pretty clear story when the chitchat is edited out and the important parts are put together.

I'll expose that email interaction between Cole Bros. Circus staff, a local fire marshal and a journalist next week. Until then, practice noticing all the beings in cages and the cages we ourselves are in. Just notice it without getting consumed by it. This is a gentle process and ever so quick when it's done right.

Go to Circus Elephants, Part 2: Cole Bros. Circus

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Additional resources:
Eco-Adventure Travel: Seven Reasons Never to Ride an Elephant
Eco-Adventure Travel: Six Things to Do with Elephants Instead of Riding Them

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[See a complete list of writing by Tonya Kay on EcoHearth.com or visit her Clean and Green Everyday blog. – Ed.]

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