Circus Animals Depart Staples

The evening of Tuesday, July 17, 2012, I looked at my clock and hurried to downtown

LA so I would catch the elephants leaving Staples where they had completed their final performance with Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus. I snagged a terrific parking spot at Flower and 11th arriving just before 11pm which was the appointed hour per the LAPD for the beginning of the Departure of the circus animals who were to head up Pico to Alameda to Washington continuing up to the railyard for the 3 mile walk of the elephants with a half dozen or so ponies following on hoof.  The other animals are transported in animal trailers, but the elephants and ponies get a tourist's view of LA under moonlight.

I talked to a few people who didn't know anything and talked with police and security guards who wouldn't say anything about the animal departure -- because PETA members had set themselves on the curb with their posters claiming animal cruelty as they had the entire week during the Circus' run.

Due to their hysterical antics, the elephant walk was delayed while the circus moved all the other animals and all its equipment first in order to out-stay the possibly contentious intercourse with the protesters that could most probably cause the animals to be distressed.

The idiot PETA women were the real perpetrators of cruelty to the circus animals causing undue stress by waiting to heckle them and their handlers as they headed to the train after their long work day.

So, I left without any photos as I couldn't tell when the walk would occur and I figured that if I were the circus I'd just route them up Pico directly instead of down 11th to Flower to Pico as reported in the Police announcement. I'm all for correct treatment of animals but PETA seems to have other motives. There was no one around that night for PETA's message to work on; they were just being bullies.

The photos in this report were made by me in 2009 when the circus animals arrived at Staples on the day of Michael Jackson's memorial service. The streets were quiet at about 4am and occasionally you'd hear an elephant sound a muffled trumpet call as he/she was anxious to arrive at the stall filled with soft hay following a journey on the train.



Hopefully, the next time the circus visits, I'll be able to view the elephant walk and experience the magic between the handlers and their animals who seem quite content to walk through the streets to their next destination to perform.

I just wish I'd taken a photo of the self-possessed woman giving clear, decisive orders to the circus workers who were packing up the trucks; she was a pretty heroic figure... focused and determined.