Something horrible happened to Mary
Since young, I’ve never liked any form of entertainment that involved animals. When I was around 9 years old, my parents took me to a circus in New York. It was about a 2 hours drive from where we lived and I remember not feeling very excited about going there at all. When we arrived, the circus performance wasn’t entertaining and I was glad that we never went to another circus again.
As an adult now, I am very against the practice of training animals for the sake of profit/entertainment. In the documentary, Earthlings (a documentary that everyone must watch)… they begin their section of animal cruelty in the world of entertainment with a quote by Mark Twain, “Of all the creatures ever made he (man) is the most detestable. He’s the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain.”
Below is an article that I came across about a circus elephant named Mary. She was dubbed by the writer as “The Elephant Who Never Truly Lived”… as from the moment that Mary was born, she lived to be abused and tortured in ‘Sparks World Famous Shows’ circus for the next 30 years. One day, when she was being prodded behind her ear with a hook, she reacted and killed her trainer. In response, the circus owner hung Mary using a railcar-mounted industrial crane… in front of 3000 people.
Before getting hung, a local man shot Mary 5 times… but it didn’t kill her. Then during the first hanging attempt, the chain around her neck snapped, dropping Mary and causing her to break her hip. The second attempt successfully hung and killed Mary…
Imagine being held captive since you’re an infant, and being continuously prodded by sharp bull hooks daily for 30 years… then being exposed to a circus full of people laughing, screaming and chanting. Anyone, human or animal, would go crazy after so many years of torture… and Mary, was one such unfortunate elephant who went out of her mind and killed her trainer… because of that, she was hung to death in front of 3,000 people.
We are not the only species on this planet, but share it with millions of other different and beautiful living creatures. Please do not support any industry that uses animals as a form of entertainment… it can be safaris, bear dancers, circuses, sea world etc. Wild animals are not meant to be held captive. Tricks that their trainers taught them most likely involves cruel methods of training. Share with everyone on the cruelty behind these entertainment industries… it is only through awareness and knowledge that we can put an end to the sufferings of these animals used for entertainment. I have never liked circuses and I will never like them.
Tsem Rinpoche
In Memory of Mary: Advocating Against Circus Abuse
Mary was a circus elephant in the 1900’s. Her story is one of sadness, and heartbreak. I wanted to share with all of you her story. Learning of Mary has made a huge impact on my life and I think she deserves to be remembered
“On September 11, 1916, a hotel worker named Red Eldridge was hired as an assistant elephant trainer by the circus. On the evening of September 12 he was killed by Mary in Kingsport, Tennessee, while taking her to a nearby pond to splash and drink. There have been several accounts of his death. One, recounted by W.H. Coleman who claimed to be a witness, is that he prodded her behind the ear with a hook, repeatedly jabbing and taunting her, after she reached down to nibble on a watermelon rind. She went into a rage, snatched Eldridge with her trunk, threw him against a drink stand and stepped on his head, crushing it.”
“The circus owner, Charlie Sparks, decided that the only way to quickly resolve the potentially ruinous situation was to kill the elephant in public. On the following day, a foggy and rainy September 13, 1916, she was transported by rail to Erwin, Tennessee, where a crowd of over 2,500 people (including most of the town’s children) assembled in the Clinchfield Railroad yard.
The elephant was hanged by the neck from a railcar-mounted industrial crane. The first attempt resulted in a snapped chain, causing Mary to fall and break her hip as dozens of children fled in terror. The severely wounded elephant died during a second attempt and was buried beside the tracks.”
After being forced to perform and treated like garbage, Mary had finally had enough. I believe justice was served only partially in the fact that Mary killed the man who tormented her. All she wanted was a watermelon rind. The horrific way the Circus owner handled what happened haunts me, I can only imagine the fear and pain Mary experienced in the last moments of her life. She did no wrong- she was only trying to protect herself- after long endured abuse- it’s no wonder dear Mary had enough.
While we do not hear of such executions taking place today- the abuse for animals in circuses still runs rampant- elephants and many other animals used in the entertainment industry are abuse and forced to perform by fear tactics and pain conditioning.
Mary may have lived many years ago but her story still rings true- animals do not belong in the entertainment industry- they belong free and in the wild where they can roam and live naturally. It is their right to do so. As humans, we can either respect that right, or deny it- but we cannot be surprised when the animals have had enough.
Please, boycott the circus and all forms of animal use for entertainment.
In Memory of Mary, The Elephant who never truly lived
[Extracted from: http://www.vegfriend.com/profiles/blogs/in-memory-of-mary-advocating-against-circus-abuse]
Sparks Circus advert on the newspaper in 1916.
The story of Mary killing her trainer on the newspaper the next day.
The actual train that hung Mary. The man on the far left, seated on the machine, was the ‘executioner’ who worked the controls.
Kingport Times looks back at the story of Mary 22 years later, in 1938.
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Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing. Among all kind of wild animals, the one I like the most is elephant. Elephant is very very clever animal, I saw a video before about those people trained elephant to draw flowers and it looks very cute, just like a 7 years old kid’s drawing standard. In this story, Red Eldridge kept torturing Mary, of course she got angry and I agree with what the article mentioned-Mary did no wrong, she was just trying to protect herself. She bear for the torture for 30 years, not 1 or 2 years is 30 years, is not her fault that she lost control and killed that people. The nature of elephant is kind and meek and they can befriend human, please do not torture them. I am so sad to see the picture Mary was hanged, I wish that she can has a good rebirth and forgive those who hurt her.
I always have the weird feelings of going to a circus to see animals performed. I have never been to 1. And never intend to go to 1. It is like a odd feel to just go watch these acts. Like what Rinpoche mentioned, “I have never liked circuses and I will never like them.”
The feelings are exactly true for me too.
The only unfortunate [to a certain extent] was the new trainer was there only for a day. Yes, he prodded and abused Mary as well.. however, prior to that, other trainers inflicted the same damage…yet they managed to get away with it.. well.. we can only say his karma was really bad.. too bad for abusing an already terrified elephant.
Together, we can make a difference… stop patronising circuses that uses animals for shows!
Oh my god what a terrible way to treat an animal!!!
You abuse it for 30 years then you kill it what sort of human being is that??!!
Of course being only a kid i don’t really know much about circuses or what happens behind the scenes,but this kind of treatment is horribly cruel.
Anyways,Mary only wanted a watermelon rind and because of that Eldridge taunted poor Mary. Yet Charlie Sparks was such an idiot for not understanding that animals have feelings also.
So just because Mary killed Eldridge that gave Charlie sparks an excuse to kill an elephant.
What i also wish to say is since people who kill another person suffers the same fate,why is it that when a person kills an animal he/she does not suffer any fate?? That means if there were harsh punishments for mistreating/killing animals no one would think about torturing or killing a animal.
I hope that everyone will stop going to the circuses so that it will drive the company/owner to bankruptcy.
This is so horrible Rinpoche. I will never look at the animal entertainment business in a good was ever again.
When i was younger, i regret to say, that i used to like going to see animal shows and performances. But now i see how wrong i was. There was probably so much suffering in all the shows and performances i saw in the past. And i can’t believe i supported that suffering by going to the shows. It will not happen again.
Animals are not meant to be kept for entertainment purposes, they are meant to be free. Its just that us humans lack the respect for animals, and we think we can do whatever we want to them because we are ‘better’ than they are. We are wrong. So so wrong.
We must all learn to treat animals with great respect and give them better lives. We must all learn that the animal entertainment business is bad and we should not support it by going to the shows and performances. Amazing animals like Mary should not have experienced what Mary had. We need to spread awareness of this.
To me, the unfairest being in the world are humans. Because we never think about what did the others did for us in the past, we only think for ourselves. Mary has been tortured throughout her whole life which is about thirty years, and I bet if you have been through what Mary had, you would be insane by the time you reach thirty years old. When you get beaten too much, one day you will just suddenly do something that you never thought you could do it, such as killing the person or just hurt other innocent people because you want them to suffer the same thing like what you’ve been through. I don’t think it’s Mary’s fault for killing the trainer, it was the trainers fault from the beginning, he shouldn’t have hurt her repeatedly he shouldn’t even hurt her. Hanging Mary to death is just making more people to hurt more animals, because now they would think that animals have no feelings. We must stop these kinds of activities not only because it will hurt more people, it will also make us less humans.
Ever since I knew that circuses and zoos are treating the animals like trash, I’ve never liked visiting them anymore. When I was very young, I used to love going to the zoo, to me it was the only place where I can meet live animals. But unfortunately, the authorities have abused the privilege and use the animals to make money, they have forgotten about the ultimate purpose of having the zoos built at the first place, which is to educate the people. The animals weren’t supposed to be in the zoos anyways, they belong to the nature where they can live freely, without having to worry about getting beaten up ruthlessly. They are living beings that feel pain and love, and the amount of pain they have to go through every day is just massive, it cannot be described in words, and it’s self- evident, most of us just chose not to see/ acknowledge it. When we make ourselves care, and when we care about something, we’ll do our best to make a better change. If we transform our way of thinking, together, we can save a lot of lives.
Circuses are extremely cruel and the animals in there are so poor because everyday of their lives they are put in cages, whipped and hit for trick learning, given bad food, never put in the correct conditions and given no respect. Imagine a life where you cannot be free and you are confined to an area and cannot leave and day after day you are treated horribly and beaten for tricks to be performed in front of an audience that don’t care how you are hurting behind the mask of the circus blinds. Why do we get to pick for them to have this horrible life for our entertainment. that is truly the reason why humans are the most selfish beings.
This poor poor elephant only defended herself once and it killed a man accidentally and since humans are so selfish and they don’t care that she only defended herself from the man, they value the man over her because she is an “animal”. Which is absurd because even though they cannot talk to defend themselves doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t get a fair trial. Humans why are we so selfish?
Such are the minds of cowards, ignorant fools who think they can get away from abusing those weaker than them like Mary. These are the times when you wish their karma would ripen sooner but no doubt it will and they probably reincarnate back as a future Mary. How sad when we don’t have Dharma.
I hope more and more education and awareness will be created so that there are less and less demands for circuses using animals. We will all need to do our bit in this and supporting groups like Peta with a strong voice for the animals.
Instead of training animals, humans can and should train themselves like those China girls that can spin plates and bowls. That’s still entertainment, no and I’d rather watch that any day. it’s high time we protect those weaker, innocent and cannot speak up for themselves. Animals do have their right to live in peace and happiness too!
The circus owner executed Mary in a cruel manner to appease the minds of potential customers who ignorantly thought that Mary was a dangerous animal to have committed such a violent murder of her trainer. With understanding of what truly goes on behind the scene of animal training for entertainment purposes, those who are truly cruel are the trainers. The circus owners murdered Mary in public to selfishly salvage his reputation, not even for Eldridge, the trainer who was killed.
Cruelty towards fellow earthlings still pervade today with better packaging at homes and in the commercial world. If we read other articles in Rinpoche’s blog, we will garner factual knowledge of what truly happens to the beings of the animal realm. You can say it is their karma to be in that situation….then, i request us to consider: what karma am I creating every time I cause an animal to suffer? Based on the law of cause and effect, are we creating the karma to be in that realm?
The balanced and harmonious existence for the fauna of our planet is not a favor we do them. Biodiversity is essential for the continued survival of our eco-system, which is the foundation for human survival. Every animal has a role in this system and the loss of any “player” in this system will ultimately contribute to the breakdown of the world we live in. However shielded we are from this reality, our bubble will be busted as, literally, the ground we walk on crumble. Take the whales as example, they contribute to the production of planktons that become fundamental food source to aquatic lifeforms. So, whales actually enrich the variety and increase the quantity of our sea population, which is contrary to the arguments of whale-fishermen who claim that getting rid of the whales that consumes large quantities of fish will benefit mankind because it leaves more for us to consume. Today, as the whale population dwindle, so does the quantity of fishes available for human enjoyment. Source: http://www.upworthy.com/something-alive-is-moving-about-half-of-the-water-in-the-oceans?c=ufb1
May stories like that of Mary stop as we become true civilized citizens of our planet!!!
Thanks Rinpoche. Human is the only species I think that takes others’ life not for only food but for fun and entertainment and satisfaction, and still thinks he has every rights and power to do so.
Dear Rinpoche.
Thank you for sharing.
This shows that humans have so much hatred in their mind that it obscures our thoughts, it overwhelms our compassionate nature, and worse, we let our anger dictate our actions.
So sad. May Mary had a good rebirth.
I will not support animal shows in whatever form.
Thank you.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing. The way they killed Mary was like taking revenge on Mary. The owner had so much hatred on Mary and I think he was trying to run away from his responsibilities by killing Mary in the public. How could a person hang a elephant to death. It was so cruel. We should treat animals well.
It’s painful to read this article. Why are there so many heartless humans in this world? So so sad.
I agree!
This awful and unfortunate incident should not have happened. The circus master could have spared the Mary her life and not ostracised her to a painful death because he was a human being with emotional intelligence! It is truly sad to hear of what happened to Mary. I will be more generous towards animals from now on.