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Last Chain on Billie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top
Against the backdrop of a glittering but brutal circus world, Carol Bradley's Last Chain on Billie charts the history of elephants in America, the inspiring story of the Elephant Sanctuary and the spellbinding tale of a resilient elephant who defied the system even as she struggled to conquer her past, who never lost sight of the life she was meant to have.Left in the wild, Billie the elephant would have spent her days surrounded by family, free to wander the jungles of Asia. Instead, traders captured her as a baby and shipped her to America, where she learned to carry humans, stand on a tub and balance on one leg – the full repertoire of elephant tricks. For decades, Billie crisscrossed the country, dazzling audiences as she performed breathtaking stunts. But behind the scenes she lived a life of traveling in trucks, chained for hours on end, barely able to move, giving eight-minute performances under harsh lights and to the sounds of blaring music. And worse.Finally, she got a lucky break. As part of the largest elephant rescue in American history, Billie wound up at a sanctuary for performing elephants in Tennessee, able once more to roam through open meadows and share her days with a herd. She would never be beaten again. But, overcome with anxiety, she withdrew from the rest of the elephants and refused to let anyone remove a chain still clamped around her leg. Her caregivers began to wonder if Billie could ever escape her emotional wounds. The compelling story of Billie's battle to reclaim her old self is a testament to the intelligence, emotional complexity and remarkable strength of all elephants, captive or free.
336 pages, ebook
First published July 22, 2014
35 people are currently reading
506 people want to read
About the author
Carol Bradley
9 books9 followersBefore turning to books, I spent many years as a newspaper reporter in my home state of Tennessee, New York, Washington D.C. and Montana.
My family had a couple of dogs when I was very young and adopted a number of stray cats, but I really became interested in the lives of animals after my husband, Steve L’Heureux, and I acquired two Shelties. I was fascinated at the intelligence and emotional complexity of those beloved dogs.
I began to write about horse slaughtering and animal hoarding and – after covering an egregious puppy mill bust – my interest in the underbelly of the animal world deepened.
I studied Animal Law as a Nieman fellow at Harvard in 2004 and afterward began work on my first book: Saving Gracie: How one dog escaped the shadowy world of American puppy mill (Wiley, 2010.)
Last Chain on Billie is my second book.
I live in Great Falls, Montana with my husband and three very colorful dogs.
My family had a couple of dogs when I was very young and adopted a number of stray cats, but I really became interested in the lives of animals after my husband, Steve L’Heureux, and I acquired two Shelties. I was fascinated at the intelligence and emotional complexity of those beloved dogs.
I began to write about horse slaughtering and animal hoarding and – after covering an egregious puppy mill bust – my interest in the underbelly of the animal world deepened.
I studied Animal Law as a Nieman fellow at Harvard in 2004 and afterward began work on my first book: Saving Gracie: How one dog escaped the shadowy world of American puppy mill (Wiley, 2010.)
Last Chain on Billie is my second book.
I live in Great Falls, Montana with my husband and three very colorful dogs.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
April 30, 2014
Why do publishers insist on books with misleading titles? I thought this would be an emotional story about an elephant named Billie. She is indeed in this book but so are a lot of other elephants. And other circus animals.
In actuality, not even a tenth of the story is about Billie. Also since she was owned by a number of circuses, her name was usually changed each time she went to a new owner so as you're reading this you'll need to mentally keep score as to her most recent name. An overabundance of writing is devoted to what elephant was sold to who when. This makes it seem like reading a ledger of elephant owners. The author did her research but devotes too much space to relaying facts. Names are dropped left and right as to owners, trainers and circus companies.
By the end, the topic of Billie has been rambled away from to the extent that it makes the reader wonder what the real subject was intended to be. The history of circus elephants? The (hopefully) former mistreatment of animals in the circus?
Thank you to the nice folks at NetGalley who gave me an advance copy.
In actuality, not even a tenth of the story is about Billie. Also since she was owned by a number of circuses, her name was usually changed each time she went to a new owner so as you're reading this you'll need to mentally keep score as to her most recent name. An overabundance of writing is devoted to what elephant was sold to who when. This makes it seem like reading a ledger of elephant owners. The author did her research but devotes too much space to relaying facts. Names are dropped left and right as to owners, trainers and circus companies.
By the end, the topic of Billie has been rambled away from to the extent that it makes the reader wonder what the real subject was intended to be. The history of circus elephants? The (hopefully) former mistreatment of animals in the circus?
Thank you to the nice folks at NetGalley who gave me an advance copy.
August 5, 2016
*I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Oh, how I love elephants. Out of all the wild animals, elephants are my favourite. I just want to spam this whole post with photos of elephants! :D
Many years ago, I was extremely naive in regards to captive animals. I honestly believed that circuses treated their animals with love and care and looked after them extremely well. After all, their animals were their biggest money spinners, right? So it stands to reason that they would care for their animals and treat them right, seeing as circus animals were the main reason people paid to visit. It was where their revenue came from. I was also one of those people who believed that wild animals in zoos and circuses were ok to have, otherwise how else does a person get to see these magnificent creatures in the flesh and learn about them and love them?
Wow. Talk about naive. Over the years I’ve come to a completely different perspective on wild animals in captivity. Taking animals from their native wild habitat to display in cages or in performances is just flat out wrong. And even tho many many zoos around the world have wonderful habitats for their animals that are a far cry from the old time concrete enclosures, I still don’t like it. And for those who believe it’s ok for the animals that are born in captivity, well the only reason they are born in captivity is because they had a parent that was more than likely, taken from the wild.
Carol Bradley’s Last Chain on Billie isn’t just about Billie; it’s a history of circus and zoo elephants in USA, from the first ones imported – read “taken violently from the wild” – to the fate of circus elephants today. It’s about the vicious “training” techniques employed by elephant trainers who were the “top” in their field. It’s about the abuse and the neglect and the torture that even today, circus elephants are experiencing, solely to “entertain” us. Think about it – the gigantic size and the humongous weight of an elephant….and it’s doing headstands. And rearing up on its back feet. Have you ever seen an image of a wild elephant doing a headstand? Have any of the numerous scientists and biologists who study elephants in the wild ever talked about an elephant naturally doing these things? Do you think it’s at all natural for a 2 ton creature to lift that weight and rest it on its head?
And then there are videos such as this one:
http://youtu.be/b4aoxAqj_kY
which are simply horrifying. Despite what most people think, an elephant’s skin is not super thick and they do have many sensitive parts on their body. When struck there, they experience pain.
Although elephants belong to the Pachyderm species which means ‘thick-skinned’ animals, they actually have very thin skin except in certain places such as the back and the sides where it is about 2 – 3 centimetres thick. The thinnest parts of skin are behind their ears, around their eyes, on the chest, abdomen and shoulders. On these parts, their skin is as thin as paper. Skin provides a protective function for all animals, however, there are some unique characteristics about the elephants skin. Elephants skin is very sensitive to the sun. Elephant calves are constantly shadowed by their mothers to avoid sunburn. :taken from animalcorner.co.uk
Carol Bradley documents all this, and more, in her important book. From elephant trainers well-known within the circus industry who have said in public they follow the “show them who’s boss” method of training – meaning, beat them and break their spirit and torment them and torture them until they do what you want out of fear – to the horrendous conditions circus elephants – and those in “private menageries” (a practice that should be outlawed) – are living and suffering under. Elephants who stand still and bob their heads repeatedly, elephants who rock back and forth continuously – these are signs of extreme stress in the animal, not a natural habit of an elephant.
And while Billie had a happy ending, it’s an ending that just isn’t good enough had she never been ripped from her mother and her wild habitat.
If you teach your dog to sit, come when called, bring the ball back, to heel when walking on a leash by beating him and torturing him and forcing him to do as you want for fear of experiencing pain, then you probably won’t care a jot about this book. But if you teach your dog to do these things with love and praise and treats and you think this is the way it should be, then you must start wondering why we are allowing these elephants to be treated this way.
Carol Bradley’s Last Chain on Billie is an important book – it needs to join the ranks of education material such as Blackfish, on educating us on how animals should be treated. Last Chain on Billie will break your heart – it’ll make you angry – it’ll make you cry. But it must be read.
Oh, how I love elephants. Out of all the wild animals, elephants are my favourite. I just want to spam this whole post with photos of elephants! :D
Many years ago, I was extremely naive in regards to captive animals. I honestly believed that circuses treated their animals with love and care and looked after them extremely well. After all, their animals were their biggest money spinners, right? So it stands to reason that they would care for their animals and treat them right, seeing as circus animals were the main reason people paid to visit. It was where their revenue came from. I was also one of those people who believed that wild animals in zoos and circuses were ok to have, otherwise how else does a person get to see these magnificent creatures in the flesh and learn about them and love them?
Wow. Talk about naive. Over the years I’ve come to a completely different perspective on wild animals in captivity. Taking animals from their native wild habitat to display in cages or in performances is just flat out wrong. And even tho many many zoos around the world have wonderful habitats for their animals that are a far cry from the old time concrete enclosures, I still don’t like it. And for those who believe it’s ok for the animals that are born in captivity, well the only reason they are born in captivity is because they had a parent that was more than likely, taken from the wild.
Carol Bradley’s Last Chain on Billie isn’t just about Billie; it’s a history of circus and zoo elephants in USA, from the first ones imported – read “taken violently from the wild” – to the fate of circus elephants today. It’s about the vicious “training” techniques employed by elephant trainers who were the “top” in their field. It’s about the abuse and the neglect and the torture that even today, circus elephants are experiencing, solely to “entertain” us. Think about it – the gigantic size and the humongous weight of an elephant….and it’s doing headstands. And rearing up on its back feet. Have you ever seen an image of a wild elephant doing a headstand? Have any of the numerous scientists and biologists who study elephants in the wild ever talked about an elephant naturally doing these things? Do you think it’s at all natural for a 2 ton creature to lift that weight and rest it on its head?
And then there are videos such as this one:
http://youtu.be/b4aoxAqj_kY
which are simply horrifying. Despite what most people think, an elephant’s skin is not super thick and they do have many sensitive parts on their body. When struck there, they experience pain.
Although elephants belong to the Pachyderm species which means ‘thick-skinned’ animals, they actually have very thin skin except in certain places such as the back and the sides where it is about 2 – 3 centimetres thick. The thinnest parts of skin are behind their ears, around their eyes, on the chest, abdomen and shoulders. On these parts, their skin is as thin as paper. Skin provides a protective function for all animals, however, there are some unique characteristics about the elephants skin. Elephants skin is very sensitive to the sun. Elephant calves are constantly shadowed by their mothers to avoid sunburn. :taken from animalcorner.co.uk
Carol Bradley documents all this, and more, in her important book. From elephant trainers well-known within the circus industry who have said in public they follow the “show them who’s boss” method of training – meaning, beat them and break their spirit and torment them and torture them until they do what you want out of fear – to the horrendous conditions circus elephants – and those in “private menageries” (a practice that should be outlawed) – are living and suffering under. Elephants who stand still and bob their heads repeatedly, elephants who rock back and forth continuously – these are signs of extreme stress in the animal, not a natural habit of an elephant.
And while Billie had a happy ending, it’s an ending that just isn’t good enough had she never been ripped from her mother and her wild habitat.
If you teach your dog to sit, come when called, bring the ball back, to heel when walking on a leash by beating him and torturing him and forcing him to do as you want for fear of experiencing pain, then you probably won’t care a jot about this book. But if you teach your dog to do these things with love and praise and treats and you think this is the way it should be, then you must start wondering why we are allowing these elephants to be treated this way.
Carol Bradley’s Last Chain on Billie is an important book – it needs to join the ranks of education material such as Blackfish, on educating us on how animals should be treated. Last Chain on Billie will break your heart – it’ll make you angry – it’ll make you cry. But it must be read.
July 25, 2014
I remember going to a circus as a small child and being absolutely horrified that they made an elephant walk on a ball when it clearly didn't want to. I haven't been to a circus that has animals since. This tells the story of how they originally got the elephants to use in circuses and what the poor animals went through before they even endure the 'training' inside the circus environment.
The fact that elephants are such intelligent creatures and Billie was traumatised by her life experiences horrified me.
The fact that elephants are such intelligent creatures and Billie was traumatised by her life experiences horrified me.
June 18, 2014
I tend to check the Netgalley “Read Now” section to see if there are any interesting books which perhaps don’t necessarily get as much attention as they should. This one caught my eye with its title, and reading the summary of the book I just had to read it fully and follow Billie the elephant’s adventure myself.
Sadly this book was a DNF at 30%. Why?
The summary led me to believe this would be a story that would be written like an adventure, albeit with factual information to add context and depth to the book. That wasn’t quite the case. The first few chapters read fairly easily, but after that I struggled to keep reading. It was more of a congested version of facts around the time period rather than the book which seemed to promise a captivating, moving story about an elephant which struggled throughout her circus career.
In fact, for a majority of the book I read Billie wasn’t even that dominant a character. Instead there were many characters introduced, both trainers and elephants as well as the circus troops in which they performed, after which it seemed like an expectation for the reader to keep up with the fast pace and powerful current of information and facts that came rushing out afterwards.
The book should probably be considered as a much more factual book that, perhaps later on, focuses on Billie’s life. From the 30% of the book that I did read this wasn’t the case. Perhaps this was the preface, the “setting up” contextually, but even then it felt like too much, too fast, and, to be honest, rather boring. I love the circus, always have, and have been fascinated with their history and the training of animals since I was a kid. If I wanted to learn more about the people and the technical aspect of the circus though then I would’ve gone specifically to the library and picked out books on the topic. I didn’t get that emotional story I expected to find in this one and was left rather disappointed, and there wasn’t much in the book that kept my interest or incentive to keep plowing through it.
Sadly this book was a DNF at 30%. Why?
The summary led me to believe this would be a story that would be written like an adventure, albeit with factual information to add context and depth to the book. That wasn’t quite the case. The first few chapters read fairly easily, but after that I struggled to keep reading. It was more of a congested version of facts around the time period rather than the book which seemed to promise a captivating, moving story about an elephant which struggled throughout her circus career.
In fact, for a majority of the book I read Billie wasn’t even that dominant a character. Instead there were many characters introduced, both trainers and elephants as well as the circus troops in which they performed, after which it seemed like an expectation for the reader to keep up with the fast pace and powerful current of information and facts that came rushing out afterwards.
The book should probably be considered as a much more factual book that, perhaps later on, focuses on Billie’s life. From the 30% of the book that I did read this wasn’t the case. Perhaps this was the preface, the “setting up” contextually, but even then it felt like too much, too fast, and, to be honest, rather boring. I love the circus, always have, and have been fascinated with their history and the training of animals since I was a kid. If I wanted to learn more about the people and the technical aspect of the circus though then I would’ve gone specifically to the library and picked out books on the topic. I didn’t get that emotional story I expected to find in this one and was left rather disappointed, and there wasn’t much in the book that kept my interest or incentive to keep plowing through it.
August 3, 2014
I read this book after seeing it recommended through Elephant Warriors and others I follow on Facebook.
This book is a powerful read. It offers an unflinching look at the reality of life for a circus elephant, and it is sure to break the heart of anyone who loves these gentle giants.
Yet, for all its heartbreak, it is ultimately a tale of triumph for Billie, and a story of hope for all elephants living in captivity. We cannot save all of them. However, by raising awareness, we can hopefully put a dent in the tickets sales which help keep elephants enslaved to the entertainment industry.
This book is well written, engaging, and keeps the reader curious up to the very end. I love these elephants, and I am glad to see that their lives and deaths have been given recognition in this book and its message to the masses.
This book is a powerful read. It offers an unflinching look at the reality of life for a circus elephant, and it is sure to break the heart of anyone who loves these gentle giants.
Yet, for all its heartbreak, it is ultimately a tale of triumph for Billie, and a story of hope for all elephants living in captivity. We cannot save all of them. However, by raising awareness, we can hopefully put a dent in the tickets sales which help keep elephants enslaved to the entertainment industry.
This book is well written, engaging, and keeps the reader curious up to the very end. I love these elephants, and I am glad to see that their lives and deaths have been given recognition in this book and its message to the masses.
November 7, 2014
Read this for a book talk and I will never look at a circus the same way. It has some gut-wrenching parts that make me sick to be a "human". Elephants are such gentle giants, in their natural habitat. I have been beaten and tied down a few times and I wanted to and tried to kill my tormentors. This practice is hideous.
Then you find out about the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. The Sanctuary grows every year. It provides the closest thing to a natural habitat that these elephants are going to get. They have no structure to the day, treats are hung in trees for them, and they can make family groups.
Read this, it will rend your heart and then give you hope for the human race. The best book I've read this year.
Then you find out about the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. The Sanctuary grows every year. It provides the closest thing to a natural habitat that these elephants are going to get. They have no structure to the day, treats are hung in trees for them, and they can make family groups.
Read this, it will rend your heart and then give you hope for the human race. The best book I've read this year.
August 9, 2014
Utterly heartbreaking. I dare anyone who loves the circus to read this book. I will find it hard to believe if you still support the circuses who mistreat and abuse all animals, not just the elephants, in order to entertain. If you wouldn't treat your pet the way the handlers do, why support those who treat other animals that way.
September 20, 2014
I ♥ The Elephant Sanctuary!
This book was difficult to read because it made me so sad and so angry. I kept reading because I knew in the end that a few elephants would be saved, and Billie would let her chain be cut off after living happily for several years at The Elephant Sanctuary. I've watched the video many times...
http://www.elephants.com/billie/Billi...
This book was difficult to read because it made me so sad and so angry. I kept reading because I knew in the end that a few elephants would be saved, and Billie would let her chain be cut off after living happily for several years at The Elephant Sanctuary. I've watched the video many times...
http://www.elephants.com/billie/Billi...
February 14, 2023
This is the first book I was not able to finish. Even when I am not into the book, I always power through to finish it but, unfortunately, with this one… negative. Personally, lost my interest pretty quick and it was boring.
February 17, 2018
This book is less of a biography of Billie and more a scathing indictment of the treatment of elephants by circuses + a hagiography of Tennessee's Elephant Sanctuary. Both of these are important and worthy things to write a book about, though neither is properly alluded to in the title. I appreciated that each chapter ended with a sub-section devoted to unmasking early circus abuses, and Bradley's journalism career shows in the writing as she has a flare for telling stories in an enthusiastic, colorful fashion.
However, this book was published in a format that I absolutely loathe: although there is a section of end notes, there is no indication within the text of the author's sources or which bits can be found in the notes. As such, when reading it if you want to verify where she got her information (including for some direct quotations!) you have to continually flip to the back of the book and hope it is one of the things cited at the end. This is tedious, time-wasting, and stupid. I wish publishers would abandon it as a formatting decision.
I was also left with several questions, most notably: was Billie the only elephant to have a chain left on her for so long? If yes, why was she different? If no, how often did this occur? I may have missed these answers, but if I did it is because the wider argument against circus elephants often overshadowed the story of Billie herself (thus the four stars instead of five.)
Nevertheless, this is a good read and shines a blinding light on the abuses performed by those humans tasked with caring for these beautiful elephants. (Don't plan on ever looking at Ringling the same way again, if you happen to still be a fan of the now-defunct circus.)
However, this book was published in a format that I absolutely loathe: although there is a section of end notes, there is no indication within the text of the author's sources or which bits can be found in the notes. As such, when reading it if you want to verify where she got her information (including for some direct quotations!) you have to continually flip to the back of the book and hope it is one of the things cited at the end. This is tedious, time-wasting, and stupid. I wish publishers would abandon it as a formatting decision.
I was also left with several questions, most notably: was Billie the only elephant to have a chain left on her for so long? If yes, why was she different? If no, how often did this occur? I may have missed these answers, but if I did it is because the wider argument against circus elephants often overshadowed the story of Billie herself (thus the four stars instead of five.)
Nevertheless, this is a good read and shines a blinding light on the abuses performed by those humans tasked with caring for these beautiful elephants. (Don't plan on ever looking at Ringling the same way again, if you happen to still be a fan of the now-defunct circus.)
December 5, 2018
Excellent book. A must read. A historical perspective on the hidden world of animals in entertainment, elephants, and those who have given everything to save them.
Bradley is a tremendous writer. She uses the story of Billie to illustrate 200 years of circus history and the elephants who gave everything, suffering day in and day giving the entirely of their long life to an industry that chose profit over decency.
As humans, we owe it to these animals to read this book and hopefully learn from it so that we don't repeat the sins of our past.
This is a great read. You will not want to put it down. My only complaint was that it ended. I could have read 300 more pages.
Bradley is a tremendous writer. She uses the story of Billie to illustrate 200 years of circus history and the elephants who gave everything, suffering day in and day giving the entirely of their long life to an industry that chose profit over decency.
As humans, we owe it to these animals to read this book and hopefully learn from it so that we don't repeat the sins of our past.
This is a great read. You will not want to put it down. My only complaint was that it ended. I could have read 300 more pages.
April 18, 2023
Bradley relates the tale of the elephant Billie who was captured in Asia and taken to the states to perform in circuses in the most horrible of conditions and who eventually with a lot of help is released into an animal sanctuary. The author also details the cause of animal rights, those who helped and those who tried to rig the system in their favor.
December 8, 2024
While the book wasn't just about Billie, I thought the content was well researched. It highlighted the abuse that circus animals, including Billie, endure (or succumb to) during their lives. So sad.
June 22, 2015
This is not so much a story about one elephant rescued from the circus but more a history of the plight of elephants brought to America for use in circuses and zoos. The author has really done her research. It can't be easy tracing particular elephants from their capture in Asia or Africa to America and then through the various sellings and resellings once they've reached the states, especially since those records often weren't kept well. At times the book gets a bit muddled with who bought which elephant when and then sold them to what circus or zoo but overall, you get a pretty clear picture of the elephant trade - which basically consists of hunting down elephants in Asia or Africa and separating the calves, who are more easily transported and trainable, from their mothers. Elephants have long been considered a money-making commodity and damn the consequences to the animals - or the humans that work with them. The awful living and training conditions that elephants are subjected to have been in the news more and mroe but if you hadn't already been boycotting animal circuses, you will after reading this book. I also was surprised to read of how many human trainers and handlers have died over the years from working with elephants. I think we're conditioned to think of them as gentle giants, and they can be, but an abused elephant, which all circuus elephants are according to this book, are ticking time bombs, just waiting for their chance to retaliate. After all, an elephant never forgets.
May 18, 2014
I feel about this book the same way I felt about books like A Child Called It and A Girl's Guide To Homelessness. I continue to be astounded both by the resiliency of the body and by the cruelty often displayed by humans toward other living things in the name of amusement.
Bradley tells not only the story of Billie, but also the stories of dozens of other animals- tigers, lions, bears, and of course elephants, in particular the Hawthorn elephants purchased by John Cuneo, trained, and then leased to various circuses over a period of time spanning over 35 years. Bradley seems to have done her research and tells the story with a no holds barred grit and determination. The writing is easy to follow and my heart wrenched at every turn of the page.
Animal lovers and activists will be drawn to Billie, her story, and the stories of the other circus animals.
Digital galley courtesy of the publisher and Netgalley.
Bradley tells not only the story of Billie, but also the stories of dozens of other animals- tigers, lions, bears, and of course elephants, in particular the Hawthorn elephants purchased by John Cuneo, trained, and then leased to various circuses over a period of time spanning over 35 years. Bradley seems to have done her research and tells the story with a no holds barred grit and determination. The writing is easy to follow and my heart wrenched at every turn of the page.
Animal lovers and activists will be drawn to Billie, her story, and the stories of the other circus animals.
Digital galley courtesy of the publisher and Netgalley.
August 6, 2014
Last Chain on Billie is an in-depth look at the life of a circus elephant with a closer look at one in particular. Bradley lays a foundation early on to make sure we know some of the key players in the history of the circus before moving on to paint a picture of how elephants tend to be treated in that setting. While, on the one hand, many of the images included are of a sort that many would rather not see, in the end there is redemption for Billie and her mates, particularly in the locale of The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Also, the picture painted is one of hope for continued improved treatment for these highly intelligent & beloved animals. After a slow start – the early history of the circus section gave the impression that the book might be more about the humans involved than the animals – the book picked up speed and was a delightful read!
August 12, 2016
This is by far the most difficult book I've ever read. There were several times I wanted to stop reading but I thought if those poor elephants can deal with decades and decades of what essentially amounts to torture, I can at least read the words on the page.
I feel ashamed I've been living in a world where this treatment still happens and those who tacitly or otherwise turned a blind eye to this violence should also be ashamed.
It's left me emotionally raw and intensely angry that this is still allowed to happen. My heart cries for the elephants (and other animals) that died at the hands of such violence and neglect.
I can't necessarily say I enjoyed this book (I cried too much) but it's an absolutely amazing story and I will never forget it.
I feel ashamed I've been living in a world where this treatment still happens and those who tacitly or otherwise turned a blind eye to this violence should also be ashamed.
It's left me emotionally raw and intensely angry that this is still allowed to happen. My heart cries for the elephants (and other animals) that died at the hands of such violence and neglect.
I can't necessarily say I enjoyed this book (I cried too much) but it's an absolutely amazing story and I will never forget it.
November 20, 2014
A haunting reality of the life in which circus/captive elephants face, this book chronicles the life of Billie, a circus elephant who spent her whole life in chains and being beaten to perform tricks before she was retired to an elephant sanctuary. This book questions the use of elephants for an entertainment purpose with just enough facts and harsh realities to make you vow to never attend a circus or any fair of any sorts parading elephants around to do tricks with their handlers holding sticks ready to pierce them with the sharp edges should the elephants make a mistake or falter in any way.
February 3, 2015
Oh my gosh. This book was a heartbreaking, emotional roller-coaster describing the plight of circus elephants since they first stepped foot in America. The title is a bit misleading, as the book isn't JUST about the elephant Billie (as one commenter said, she's mentioned in less than a tenth of the book) but she stands as a representation of what elephants have gone through and unfortunately what they will continue to go through for the sake of human entertainment. Nice to have the picture insert, although some of the photos were disturbing. A tough read, but a must-read, for all animal lovers.
November 23, 2015
Tough to read about these poor elephants. In addition to Billie's story, there's tons of anecdotes about other circus elephants and their training and captures. Fascinating and disturbing. I grew up near Baraboo, WI, which has a big circus tradition. We'd go to the circus museum for field trips and we'd wait at the train tracks to watch the circus cars come in. My family even participated in the Great Circus Parade in Milwaukee riding high wheelers. Recommended read!
August 15, 2014
This book is really good at explaining circus culture, even though I don't agree with it, but it is also very heartwrenching. It is nice to know that the elephant sanctuary is up and running and able to take care of injured and abused elephants.
August 9, 2014
I cannot believe that people still go to the circus. Honestly, why would an animal jump through a hoop of flame unless the alternative was even worse?
July 25, 2014
The tragic and true story of the history of captive elephants in this county.
May 25, 2016
I really enjoyed this non-fiction story of the life of circus and zoo elephants. The main character, Billie is living out her life in the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.
October 6, 2014
Notes from the read - not a review.
Last Chain on BIllie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top
by Carol Bradley
Traditionally and nearly always even today trained with brutal and sustained force using bullhooks (and bats, boards, etc.) and chaining in place.
Also contained in small enclosures, concrete floors -- foot lesions and bone problems rampant but not address because elephant could survive with them and even when it affected performance, brute force and punishments (euphemism: discipline) got the desired behavior at showtime.
Circuses still rely on dominance training. In addition to bullhooks, trainers use ropes, chains and, in modern days, electric prods, and hot shots to force an elephant into performing stunts she would otherwise never perform on her own. The key to dominance training is to strip an elephant of every ounce of autonomy by depriving her of even the smallest of choices - forcing her to perform a variety of tricks and inflicting pain on her when she fails to measure up.
Trainers see this as necessary: Circus elephants are uncaged and freer than most animals to walk about, and as a result they have to be taught to respect their handler. Most elephant men still insist that the only way to instill the right attitude is through fear: fear that disobeying a handler might bring about discomfort, or worse, pain. Trainers don’t believe that rewarding with food for following a command and withholding the food if the command is ignored works.
Some elephants form strong attachments to their trainers. One anecdote: 1942 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey menagerie tent caught fire, 4 elephants burned to death, others scorched ears and bodies -- yet the elephants waited, refusing to budge until bull man Walter McClain arrived and shouted orders -- the elephants dutifully reached down and pulled out the stakes that tied their front legs to the ground, then grasped the tail of the elephant in front of them and quietly stumbled out of the chaos.
Exercise and stimulation confined to training for the acts and the acts. Limited or no time with other elephants. Positive communication limited to use only as incentive to perform.
Believed faster and easier to teach behavior and control by brutal force.
Hit on upper flanks, head where spectators also couldn’t see wounds (which could be powdered) and crease between eyes.
Instills fear and teaches elephant there is nothing she or he can do unless the trainer allows and directs it.
Breaks spirit, PTSD.
Some trainers bring their own violent attitudes, hurting the elephants because life dealt them some low roundhouse blow.
With infants on up chained down legs, pull.
To break and maintain: several men form circle, move in, trash with stakes, pitchforks, pokers and hot irons...in the 1880s Chief never capitulated, abuse continued 11 hours until he died. Regret was that owner lost resource. So then, beat with clubs for hours off and on for several days, eventually obedient.
The book catalogs dozens of documented abuse cases, drawing from a variety of sources including interviews with former and current trainers.
To dispatch elephant refusing to perform properly: execution: strangled (Mary), cannonball blast, drowned, poisoned, pitchforked to death.
Thomas Edison: to promote D/C electricity business 1903, show dangers of his competitor’s A/C by electrocuting Topsy, a former circus elephant who had wound up at the Luna Park Zoo in Coney Island. At 28, she killed a man who forced a lit cigar in her truck. He’d already electrocuted stray dogs and cats. The zoo erected gallows and charged admission to 1,500 spectators. Then Edison release a movie of the killing, with Topsy’s smoking body toppling to the ground (on Youtube)
Torture has been standard operating procedure.
Just as brutal until videos started exposing, and still stab with bullhook, particularly in soft sensitive skin under arms, underside of legs, sides, trunk particularly underside, in ears, particularly places easy to conceal. Even one judge, Judge Sullivan, expressed concern about (Ringling) living conditions and indicated that the way the elephants reacted to the bullhooks suggested they feared they were going to be hit and hurt.
Yet judge said testimony of Rider (another trainer) highly flawed, because Rider couldn’t identity some elephants by name, calling into question how emotionally disturbed he was by their treatment...a key factor since (our highly flawed legal system) does not recognize the animals’ pain and suffering as consequences worthy of legal penalty And: “Even if Rider had been injured emotionally, the court said, banning Ringling from using bullhooks and chains would not ensure that he would ever see the elephants and suffer emotionally again.
Lawsuits: lost because failed to convince court that a (human) witness wasn’t continually and substantially harmed by the brutal abuse.
The bullhook has one purpose, “and that is to inflict pain and punishment,” Sammy Haddock wrote “I should know, I used to make them. I built them to where you can’t break the, no matter how hard you hit the elephant.” Testimony about baby and other elephants; 1975-2005 he worked for Ringling. At Ringling’s Center for Elephant Conservation, a deceiving name for the training facility where calves, taken early from mothers, spend 23 hours a day restrained. They are not allowed to play; all of their movements are controlled by trainers who are shaping behaviors for the acts. Training sessions take place behind a solid fence so no one can witness what’s happening. Rock-and-roll music blares constantly to familiarize the babies to the noise and also drown out their screaming.
The loud music is used for adult elephant situations as well.
Often, trainers would inflict punishment just because the elephant wasn’t getting the behavior or moving fast enough, terrorizing and confusing the elephant. Haddock said “They will start randomly lifting one leg, then another and another, lifting their trunk, hopning some trick will satisfy the trainer and make the beating stop.” During USDA inspections the bull men would hide the hot shots and conceal rope burns and other injuries on the elephants by rubbing mud on their skin. Usually Ringling (and others) knew when inspectors were coming well beforehand.
Eventually as elephant abuse got press, owners like Feld would conduct huge PR campaigns claiming the animals were safer than in the wild, they could rely on getting fed, being protected from the elements (though this was and remains untrue, with unair-conditioned/unheated tiny enclosures)...and food and water used to force practice and performance of behaviors). Claimed liked tricks, but when in truth they had no choice but to perform or else be beaten, starved, denied water and otherwise unstimulated. Even claimed “natural,” though elephants would never do tripod stands, head stands, etc., in the wild. As for bullhooks, business testimony was that the animals hardly feel pain, though their reactions say otherwise. And why else stab unless it was to get an immediate response from the animal?
Nearly all Ringling’s adult elephants suffered infected and abscessed feet that were ulcerated. Bad conditions, and little spent on vet care.
Billie was captured when infant. Generally calm and obedient, when sold a couple of times, didn’t respond fast enough and showed resistance, became the elephant consistently brutalized by trainers out of spite and just because they could, often for no reason. (This is devastating on various levels for any animal, including humans -- punishing for no reason.)
USDA, minimal Animal Welfare Act standards, rarely cited, and even when citing violations, lacked authority to impose sanctions.
Sometimes small easy to pay fines or sell the elephant. Then acquire more and or breed and continue the brutal abuse.
Carol Buckley former performer elephant Tarra and Scott Blais, a former trainer disillusioned with brutal force and who became interested in positive cooperative training, opened Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Later they had a falling out and in 2010, Buckley fired and barred from seeing Tarra.
In 1990s through 2000s, US District Court for the D of C: acknowledged that the footage of Tim Frisco attacking the elephants was troubling and showed conduct that violated the Animal Welfare Act. But Friedman ruled that animal welfare groups lacked legal standing to interfere with the transfer.
Elephants with TB...courts about-face: not certain bloodwork proved TB.
Billie was among 5 Hawthorn elephants relinquished to the shelter in 2005 after court proceedings.
Billie got into the trailer within a couple of minutes of hearing Blais encourage her to climb in, after visibly studying the trailer and surroundings. Knew. At Sanctuary, very wary and hung back away from the other elephants. Blis began to notice that Billie would step forward to the edge of her pen and watch the team at work. Began to utter soft noises, little squeaks.
He began to see in Billie a strength of character, a determination not to surrender to the life she’d been conscripted to. Her amber eyes showed a wary widom, a look of knowingness. Blais sensed that she had catalogued and seared into memory every wrong every done to her.
SHe came with one chain on a foot, years later, through target training, learned to let vet care staff work on her feet, trim nails, etc. Finally after 5 years, worked on target training with bolt cutter for 3 weeks. Then slowly clipped and removed the last chain.
Target training is crucial to teaching an elephant who is free to wander off to, instead, rest her foot on the side of a fence so a caregiver can file down her cuticles or stand still long enough for veterinarians to conduct trunk washes or draw blood. Elephants quickly begin to understand that good things happen if they choose to cooperate, and they begin to enjoy target training.
“They’re smart animals, “ consultant Gail Laule said. “They like to learn. But they want to learn like the rest of us -- no negative consequences for making a mistake. With target training they can say no if they want to. You provide them that kind of a context, they love to learn.”
(This reminds me of Dr. John Pilley’s teaching of Chaser, the border collie who knows 1,020 or so words.)
(When I was about 5 or 6, I learned the expression that “elephants never forget.” This expression was used way, way back -- it was KNOWN that elephants were intelligent thinking beings. As was known about other animals. Think of the various sentiments directed at Moby-Dick. The sailors/whalers knew these were thinking and feeling beings.)
The book follows the dealings of elephant enterprise Hawthorn Corporation, run by John Cuneo (in his 70s now). Cuneo multimillion family, Chicago area, mansion, dairy farm attraction, John Cuneo Jr developed elephant and animal training business, Hawthorn, rented out acts to circuses. Owned Billie.
Why wasn’t Hawthorn shut down immediately in 1994, after Tyke killed her trainer and police shot her to death in Honolulu? Or in 1996 after Hattie and Joyce died of tuberculosis and the other elephants were quarantined?...Or after a trainer was convicted of cruelty to animals in Norfolk?.... and so on: USDA inspectors, when acting, acted slowly.
“Over the years, how could USDA inspectors see the same things that I was seeing -- filth, neglect, abuse, emaciated elephants, sick elephants, dangerous elephants, neurotic elephants -- and just leave those animals there to suffer?” Debbie Leahy, PETA among volunteers to help Sue, a sick sanctuary elephant.
Zoos (most in the past, now, still many) “work over” the elephants.
Southwick’s Zoo: Dondi danced, gave rides to children and spent time in a barren exhibit absent the company of other elephants until she died at 36.
Groups such as In Defense of Animals advocating for them. Not much activism until the 1980s. (Remember, before the internet and undercover cameras, businesses and trainers knew they could get away with anything they wanted, and felt entitled to.)
1990 Regardie’s article on the Feld family...Feld retaliated, spies.
Spies infiltrate animal welfare groups.
Even former zoo officials joined the criticism. In a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles TImes, Les Schobert, a retired curator of animals at the L.A. Zoo who worked with elephants for more than 30 years, wrote that “unless elephants can be kept in a way that addresses their spatial, social and psychological needs, there is no ethical basis for keeping them in zoos.”
David Hancocks, a zoo consultant and former director of the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle: Zoos really hadn’t changed much from the old days, Hancocks said. The natural-looking habitats were “just an illusion created to enhance the visitors’ experience,” he said. “From the animals’ point of view they are no better than they were when they were in cages. It’s all done for theatrics.”
By June 2010, 18 zoos across the country had closed their exhibits or announced plans to shut them down. Others decided to invest in larger exhibits. Some changes have made some difference.
Some consultants like Alan Roocroft advocated corporal punishment - the only way, he claimed, to control the elephants. (Who didn’t want to be enslaved, of course.)
National Zoo big investment and expanded exhibit space, yet the differences were more for visitor visibility...still little shade, no scratching posts, logs, no piles of loose earth to wallow in, too-shallow pool.
Famous elephant Ziggy, born around 1917, sold from Ringling Bros to Ziegfeld to Singer Midgets, learned to play Yes Sir, That’s My Baby on harmonica, smoke a cigarette from a holder, and dance on a steel drum, then sold to Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo, attacked keeper, who implored zoo to spare the elephant, but Ziggy sentenced to a concrete bunker by himself. For 3 decades he was chained in solitary confinement in a small stall without a widow. Finally a 1969 Chicago Tribune article revealed Ziggy’s plight, readers demanded Ziggy be allowed outside, so zoo raised money for an outside enclosure. Ziggy was terrified, but trainer coaxed him. 1975, slipped in moat, stopped eating, died.
Last Chain on BIllie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top
by Carol Bradley
Traditionally and nearly always even today trained with brutal and sustained force using bullhooks (and bats, boards, etc.) and chaining in place.
Also contained in small enclosures, concrete floors -- foot lesions and bone problems rampant but not address because elephant could survive with them and even when it affected performance, brute force and punishments (euphemism: discipline) got the desired behavior at showtime.
Circuses still rely on dominance training. In addition to bullhooks, trainers use ropes, chains and, in modern days, electric prods, and hot shots to force an elephant into performing stunts she would otherwise never perform on her own. The key to dominance training is to strip an elephant of every ounce of autonomy by depriving her of even the smallest of choices - forcing her to perform a variety of tricks and inflicting pain on her when she fails to measure up.
Trainers see this as necessary: Circus elephants are uncaged and freer than most animals to walk about, and as a result they have to be taught to respect their handler. Most elephant men still insist that the only way to instill the right attitude is through fear: fear that disobeying a handler might bring about discomfort, or worse, pain. Trainers don’t believe that rewarding with food for following a command and withholding the food if the command is ignored works.
Some elephants form strong attachments to their trainers. One anecdote: 1942 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey menagerie tent caught fire, 4 elephants burned to death, others scorched ears and bodies -- yet the elephants waited, refusing to budge until bull man Walter McClain arrived and shouted orders -- the elephants dutifully reached down and pulled out the stakes that tied their front legs to the ground, then grasped the tail of the elephant in front of them and quietly stumbled out of the chaos.
Exercise and stimulation confined to training for the acts and the acts. Limited or no time with other elephants. Positive communication limited to use only as incentive to perform.
Believed faster and easier to teach behavior and control by brutal force.
Hit on upper flanks, head where spectators also couldn’t see wounds (which could be powdered) and crease between eyes.
Instills fear and teaches elephant there is nothing she or he can do unless the trainer allows and directs it.
Breaks spirit, PTSD.
Some trainers bring their own violent attitudes, hurting the elephants because life dealt them some low roundhouse blow.
With infants on up chained down legs, pull.
To break and maintain: several men form circle, move in, trash with stakes, pitchforks, pokers and hot irons...in the 1880s Chief never capitulated, abuse continued 11 hours until he died. Regret was that owner lost resource. So then, beat with clubs for hours off and on for several days, eventually obedient.
The book catalogs dozens of documented abuse cases, drawing from a variety of sources including interviews with former and current trainers.
To dispatch elephant refusing to perform properly: execution: strangled (Mary), cannonball blast, drowned, poisoned, pitchforked to death.
Thomas Edison: to promote D/C electricity business 1903, show dangers of his competitor’s A/C by electrocuting Topsy, a former circus elephant who had wound up at the Luna Park Zoo in Coney Island. At 28, she killed a man who forced a lit cigar in her truck. He’d already electrocuted stray dogs and cats. The zoo erected gallows and charged admission to 1,500 spectators. Then Edison release a movie of the killing, with Topsy’s smoking body toppling to the ground (on Youtube)
Torture has been standard operating procedure.
Just as brutal until videos started exposing, and still stab with bullhook, particularly in soft sensitive skin under arms, underside of legs, sides, trunk particularly underside, in ears, particularly places easy to conceal. Even one judge, Judge Sullivan, expressed concern about (Ringling) living conditions and indicated that the way the elephants reacted to the bullhooks suggested they feared they were going to be hit and hurt.
Yet judge said testimony of Rider (another trainer) highly flawed, because Rider couldn’t identity some elephants by name, calling into question how emotionally disturbed he was by their treatment...a key factor since (our highly flawed legal system) does not recognize the animals’ pain and suffering as consequences worthy of legal penalty And: “Even if Rider had been injured emotionally, the court said, banning Ringling from using bullhooks and chains would not ensure that he would ever see the elephants and suffer emotionally again.
Lawsuits: lost because failed to convince court that a (human) witness wasn’t continually and substantially harmed by the brutal abuse.
The bullhook has one purpose, “and that is to inflict pain and punishment,” Sammy Haddock wrote “I should know, I used to make them. I built them to where you can’t break the, no matter how hard you hit the elephant.” Testimony about baby and other elephants; 1975-2005 he worked for Ringling. At Ringling’s Center for Elephant Conservation, a deceiving name for the training facility where calves, taken early from mothers, spend 23 hours a day restrained. They are not allowed to play; all of their movements are controlled by trainers who are shaping behaviors for the acts. Training sessions take place behind a solid fence so no one can witness what’s happening. Rock-and-roll music blares constantly to familiarize the babies to the noise and also drown out their screaming.
The loud music is used for adult elephant situations as well.
Often, trainers would inflict punishment just because the elephant wasn’t getting the behavior or moving fast enough, terrorizing and confusing the elephant. Haddock said “They will start randomly lifting one leg, then another and another, lifting their trunk, hopning some trick will satisfy the trainer and make the beating stop.” During USDA inspections the bull men would hide the hot shots and conceal rope burns and other injuries on the elephants by rubbing mud on their skin. Usually Ringling (and others) knew when inspectors were coming well beforehand.
Eventually as elephant abuse got press, owners like Feld would conduct huge PR campaigns claiming the animals were safer than in the wild, they could rely on getting fed, being protected from the elements (though this was and remains untrue, with unair-conditioned/unheated tiny enclosures)...and food and water used to force practice and performance of behaviors). Claimed liked tricks, but when in truth they had no choice but to perform or else be beaten, starved, denied water and otherwise unstimulated. Even claimed “natural,” though elephants would never do tripod stands, head stands, etc., in the wild. As for bullhooks, business testimony was that the animals hardly feel pain, though their reactions say otherwise. And why else stab unless it was to get an immediate response from the animal?
Nearly all Ringling’s adult elephants suffered infected and abscessed feet that were ulcerated. Bad conditions, and little spent on vet care.
Billie was captured when infant. Generally calm and obedient, when sold a couple of times, didn’t respond fast enough and showed resistance, became the elephant consistently brutalized by trainers out of spite and just because they could, often for no reason. (This is devastating on various levels for any animal, including humans -- punishing for no reason.)
USDA, minimal Animal Welfare Act standards, rarely cited, and even when citing violations, lacked authority to impose sanctions.
Sometimes small easy to pay fines or sell the elephant. Then acquire more and or breed and continue the brutal abuse.
Carol Buckley former performer elephant Tarra and Scott Blais, a former trainer disillusioned with brutal force and who became interested in positive cooperative training, opened Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Later they had a falling out and in 2010, Buckley fired and barred from seeing Tarra.
In 1990s through 2000s, US District Court for the D of C: acknowledged that the footage of Tim Frisco attacking the elephants was troubling and showed conduct that violated the Animal Welfare Act. But Friedman ruled that animal welfare groups lacked legal standing to interfere with the transfer.
Elephants with TB...courts about-face: not certain bloodwork proved TB.
Billie was among 5 Hawthorn elephants relinquished to the shelter in 2005 after court proceedings.
Billie got into the trailer within a couple of minutes of hearing Blais encourage her to climb in, after visibly studying the trailer and surroundings. Knew. At Sanctuary, very wary and hung back away from the other elephants. Blis began to notice that Billie would step forward to the edge of her pen and watch the team at work. Began to utter soft noises, little squeaks.
He began to see in Billie a strength of character, a determination not to surrender to the life she’d been conscripted to. Her amber eyes showed a wary widom, a look of knowingness. Blais sensed that she had catalogued and seared into memory every wrong every done to her.
SHe came with one chain on a foot, years later, through target training, learned to let vet care staff work on her feet, trim nails, etc. Finally after 5 years, worked on target training with bolt cutter for 3 weeks. Then slowly clipped and removed the last chain.
Target training is crucial to teaching an elephant who is free to wander off to, instead, rest her foot on the side of a fence so a caregiver can file down her cuticles or stand still long enough for veterinarians to conduct trunk washes or draw blood. Elephants quickly begin to understand that good things happen if they choose to cooperate, and they begin to enjoy target training.
“They’re smart animals, “ consultant Gail Laule said. “They like to learn. But they want to learn like the rest of us -- no negative consequences for making a mistake. With target training they can say no if they want to. You provide them that kind of a context, they love to learn.”
(This reminds me of Dr. John Pilley’s teaching of Chaser, the border collie who knows 1,020 or so words.)
(When I was about 5 or 6, I learned the expression that “elephants never forget.” This expression was used way, way back -- it was KNOWN that elephants were intelligent thinking beings. As was known about other animals. Think of the various sentiments directed at Moby-Dick. The sailors/whalers knew these were thinking and feeling beings.)
The book follows the dealings of elephant enterprise Hawthorn Corporation, run by John Cuneo (in his 70s now). Cuneo multimillion family, Chicago area, mansion, dairy farm attraction, John Cuneo Jr developed elephant and animal training business, Hawthorn, rented out acts to circuses. Owned Billie.
Why wasn’t Hawthorn shut down immediately in 1994, after Tyke killed her trainer and police shot her to death in Honolulu? Or in 1996 after Hattie and Joyce died of tuberculosis and the other elephants were quarantined?...Or after a trainer was convicted of cruelty to animals in Norfolk?.... and so on: USDA inspectors, when acting, acted slowly.
“Over the years, how could USDA inspectors see the same things that I was seeing -- filth, neglect, abuse, emaciated elephants, sick elephants, dangerous elephants, neurotic elephants -- and just leave those animals there to suffer?” Debbie Leahy, PETA among volunteers to help Sue, a sick sanctuary elephant.
Zoos (most in the past, now, still many) “work over” the elephants.
Southwick’s Zoo: Dondi danced, gave rides to children and spent time in a barren exhibit absent the company of other elephants until she died at 36.
Groups such as In Defense of Animals advocating for them. Not much activism until the 1980s. (Remember, before the internet and undercover cameras, businesses and trainers knew they could get away with anything they wanted, and felt entitled to.)
1990 Regardie’s article on the Feld family...Feld retaliated, spies.
Spies infiltrate animal welfare groups.
Even former zoo officials joined the criticism. In a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles TImes, Les Schobert, a retired curator of animals at the L.A. Zoo who worked with elephants for more than 30 years, wrote that “unless elephants can be kept in a way that addresses their spatial, social and psychological needs, there is no ethical basis for keeping them in zoos.”
David Hancocks, a zoo consultant and former director of the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle: Zoos really hadn’t changed much from the old days, Hancocks said. The natural-looking habitats were “just an illusion created to enhance the visitors’ experience,” he said. “From the animals’ point of view they are no better than they were when they were in cages. It’s all done for theatrics.”
By June 2010, 18 zoos across the country had closed their exhibits or announced plans to shut them down. Others decided to invest in larger exhibits. Some changes have made some difference.
Some consultants like Alan Roocroft advocated corporal punishment - the only way, he claimed, to control the elephants. (Who didn’t want to be enslaved, of course.)
National Zoo big investment and expanded exhibit space, yet the differences were more for visitor visibility...still little shade, no scratching posts, logs, no piles of loose earth to wallow in, too-shallow pool.
Famous elephant Ziggy, born around 1917, sold from Ringling Bros to Ziegfeld to Singer Midgets, learned to play Yes Sir, That’s My Baby on harmonica, smoke a cigarette from a holder, and dance on a steel drum, then sold to Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo, attacked keeper, who implored zoo to spare the elephant, but Ziggy sentenced to a concrete bunker by himself. For 3 decades he was chained in solitary confinement in a small stall without a widow. Finally a 1969 Chicago Tribune article revealed Ziggy’s plight, readers demanded Ziggy be allowed outside, so zoo raised money for an outside enclosure. Ziggy was terrified, but trainer coaxed him. 1975, slipped in moat, stopped eating, died.
September 21, 2021
Finally getting back to my (now much-diminished!) just-read-it pile.
This one is fine; it felt labored over some points and sparse over others in a lopsided way. It's not really about Billie, although she's the hinge that Bradley builds the rest of the book around. Maybe more precisely, Billie's story isn't fully known to be a whole narrative, and so it's not until the final chapters and Billie being permanently located and observed at the sanctuary that aspects of "her story" can be told in detail.
The rest is uneven. So many persons and events and circuses and trips that were named in rapid succession that it became difficult to keep up with. And also difficult to discern who was topical and important *to Billie* versus a larger thesis about the abuse elephants--and other animals--endure in circuses, private ownership, and even zoos.
Billie is an excellent hook to pitch the book to a publisher, and then to sell to the public. But this book is much more about elephant trafficking, abuse, methods and means, than Billie herself; it's an important topic to tackle but I don't know as it was able to do either justice.
Bradley chose to focus on some things and glide past others. Every chapter had a postscript detailing a specific elephant or handler or incident that showed abuse and inhumane conditions. The rich owner of so many elephants and other exotic animals was in the book more than he deserved, especially as he wasn't used particularly well as a foil, he simply existed to twirl his evil-doing mustache. Both of those got numbing to read--difficult to read and not for the right reasons.
But then seemingly big-t0-Billie events like the acrimonious dissolution of the sanctuary's founders relationship, and then both of them leaving the sanctuary, was given a passing mention. As was the killing of a sanctuary worker by a cohort of Billie.
I'm glad to know about Billie and the other elephants doing better and having something of a good rest of their lives at the sanctuary. I'm honestly moved by their stories; their grim past and the hopes for their much better rest of their days. I was gobsmacked that it was as recent as 2001 that orgs and the law at last decided to set hard and fast rules for the treatment of elephants and other animals (and it was all the way to 2016 that B&B retired their elephants -- something I learned from looking it up separately, not in the book).
But I don't know as the book, as a whole, was a success in telling Billie's story. Or in arguing how to become an advocate for elephants.
I remember as a kid seeing an elephant at a fair in a corral giving rides. I was horrified. I yelled at the man leading the elephant around begging to know where her family was, her friends were, and the man at last not-so-gently asking my father that we gtfo. I knew instinctively that this monotonous circle the elephant was made to walk was unnatural--I can't be alone in that. I'm not alone in that. It's incredible to me how many people don't care, don't feel that, want ownership and sadism and taking out the cruelty that life has spent on them on others, when taking in the scope of humanity's treatment of elephants. And so many other animals. I'm not sure there's room in a book like Bradley's to get into social collective psychology and how some old norms are nowadays seen as horrific crimes -- but no room at all was given to it. I'm glad that we've come as far as we have, regarding our sentiments of what animals do and don't feel/know/need, and how we then treat them accordingly.
Bradley mentioned PETA more than once, and completely uncritically. I read up and yes, they helped aggressively push for eventual breakthroughs with elephants being released from circus life, etc, but PETA is not an unproblematic, benevolent entity. Then there's the "good days and bad days" chapter where Billie's belligerent moods are on level with the killing of a sanctuary worker. There's a lingering sense for me of emotional manipulation in how the book is written--posed, told, unspooled--that I didn't appreciate.
I do like how there's no easy answers and Bradley makes this clear, including that a sanctuary for a no-longer-wild elephant is good, even great, but imperfect. Because being left wild--in a protected, stable, endemic environment--is best.
Reading this the past few days of this year made for serendipitous timing. I sought out more info online and learned that 1) the lawsuit between one of the sanctuary founders and the sanctuary over her right to see one of the residents [Terra] who originally belonged to her was settled earlier in 2021 2) this same founder went on to start a different sanctuary, in Georgia, and they are getting their first elephant on the 23rd of this month 3) a longtime elephant resident of the sanctuary died earlier this year 4) the other founder of the sanctuary is now in Brazil trying to rescue circus elephants there.
This one is fine; it felt labored over some points and sparse over others in a lopsided way. It's not really about Billie, although she's the hinge that Bradley builds the rest of the book around. Maybe more precisely, Billie's story isn't fully known to be a whole narrative, and so it's not until the final chapters and Billie being permanently located and observed at the sanctuary that aspects of "her story" can be told in detail.
The rest is uneven. So many persons and events and circuses and trips that were named in rapid succession that it became difficult to keep up with. And also difficult to discern who was topical and important *to Billie* versus a larger thesis about the abuse elephants--and other animals--endure in circuses, private ownership, and even zoos.
Billie is an excellent hook to pitch the book to a publisher, and then to sell to the public. But this book is much more about elephant trafficking, abuse, methods and means, than Billie herself; it's an important topic to tackle but I don't know as it was able to do either justice.
Bradley chose to focus on some things and glide past others. Every chapter had a postscript detailing a specific elephant or handler or incident that showed abuse and inhumane conditions. The rich owner of so many elephants and other exotic animals was in the book more than he deserved, especially as he wasn't used particularly well as a foil, he simply existed to twirl his evil-doing mustache. Both of those got numbing to read--difficult to read and not for the right reasons.
But then seemingly big-t0-Billie events like the acrimonious dissolution of the sanctuary's founders relationship, and then both of them leaving the sanctuary, was given a passing mention. As was the killing of a sanctuary worker by a cohort of Billie.
I'm glad to know about Billie and the other elephants doing better and having something of a good rest of their lives at the sanctuary. I'm honestly moved by their stories; their grim past and the hopes for their much better rest of their days. I was gobsmacked that it was as recent as 2001 that orgs and the law at last decided to set hard and fast rules for the treatment of elephants and other animals (and it was all the way to 2016 that B&B retired their elephants -- something I learned from looking it up separately, not in the book).
But I don't know as the book, as a whole, was a success in telling Billie's story. Or in arguing how to become an advocate for elephants.
I remember as a kid seeing an elephant at a fair in a corral giving rides. I was horrified. I yelled at the man leading the elephant around begging to know where her family was, her friends were, and the man at last not-so-gently asking my father that we gtfo. I knew instinctively that this monotonous circle the elephant was made to walk was unnatural--I can't be alone in that. I'm not alone in that. It's incredible to me how many people don't care, don't feel that, want ownership and sadism and taking out the cruelty that life has spent on them on others, when taking in the scope of humanity's treatment of elephants. And so many other animals. I'm not sure there's room in a book like Bradley's to get into social collective psychology and how some old norms are nowadays seen as horrific crimes -- but no room at all was given to it. I'm glad that we've come as far as we have, regarding our sentiments of what animals do and don't feel/know/need, and how we then treat them accordingly.
Bradley mentioned PETA more than once, and completely uncritically. I read up and yes, they helped aggressively push for eventual breakthroughs with elephants being released from circus life, etc, but PETA is not an unproblematic, benevolent entity. Then there's the "good days and bad days" chapter where Billie's belligerent moods are on level with the killing of a sanctuary worker. There's a lingering sense for me of emotional manipulation in how the book is written--posed, told, unspooled--that I didn't appreciate.
I do like how there's no easy answers and Bradley makes this clear, including that a sanctuary for a no-longer-wild elephant is good, even great, but imperfect. Because being left wild--in a protected, stable, endemic environment--is best.
Reading this the past few days of this year made for serendipitous timing. I sought out more info online and learned that 1) the lawsuit between one of the sanctuary founders and the sanctuary over her right to see one of the residents [Terra] who originally belonged to her was settled earlier in 2021 2) this same founder went on to start a different sanctuary, in Georgia, and they are getting their first elephant on the 23rd of this month 3) a longtime elephant resident of the sanctuary died earlier this year 4) the other founder of the sanctuary is now in Brazil trying to rescue circus elephants there.
November 26, 2018
This is an epic story. I adored this book. So will you. If you love animals and even if you are indifferent this book is just objectively good. I have read two of Bradley's books and she has a way of telling the story of an entire industry, the history, the changes it has been through, the good side the bad side and the ugly through the life of one animal.
Every page is not about Billie, not even every chapter. It's She uses Billie through bench marks to tell the tale of how the circus started, how the abuse began, how the this country thought of circuses as the height of entertainment and how that started to change when some of the abuses were exposed.
It's a story not just about elephants but about people . People at their worst and at their best. It's about villains and heroes, and the people in between. It's about the fight for justice and what's right and what's wrong. It's about an animal on this earth that is so good that humans don't deserve her, and that for every person out to destroy that goodness are the selfless people who pick up the pieces.
It's about the people who fight to save these animals from the ugliest industry (or one of them) and have dedicated their life to righting the wrongs of others. They take in these animals who are so broken and give them the life they have always deserved to live in as close to freedom as they ever can after the life they have lived.
She tells the side of the circus, and some circus animal trainers that saw that there was a another way and used it to change the world and with it the life of so many elephants. Of course, there are still circuses in America, audiences still choose to go--but that crowd is dwindling. Hopefully this story will help all animals to escape the Big Top forever.
If you don't know anything about elephants this story will astound you. They have all of the good qualities of humans and very few of the bad. I can't think of anything more entertaining to watch and hear about and read about.
This story was amazing. You must read it. It will be one of the best books you've read all year. I read a lot and this was one of the best books I have read in my entire life.
I'll read anything Bradley reads--I read her book Amazing Gracie about how one dog escaped a puppy mill, but that's for a different review.
Please read this book. It's truly amazing. It's a fun read and you will not want to put it down.
Every page is not about Billie, not even every chapter. It's She uses Billie through bench marks to tell the tale of how the circus started, how the abuse began, how the this country thought of circuses as the height of entertainment and how that started to change when some of the abuses were exposed.
It's a story not just about elephants but about people . People at their worst and at their best. It's about villains and heroes, and the people in between. It's about the fight for justice and what's right and what's wrong. It's about an animal on this earth that is so good that humans don't deserve her, and that for every person out to destroy that goodness are the selfless people who pick up the pieces.
It's about the people who fight to save these animals from the ugliest industry (or one of them) and have dedicated their life to righting the wrongs of others. They take in these animals who are so broken and give them the life they have always deserved to live in as close to freedom as they ever can after the life they have lived.
She tells the side of the circus, and some circus animal trainers that saw that there was a another way and used it to change the world and with it the life of so many elephants. Of course, there are still circuses in America, audiences still choose to go--but that crowd is dwindling. Hopefully this story will help all animals to escape the Big Top forever.
If you don't know anything about elephants this story will astound you. They have all of the good qualities of humans and very few of the bad. I can't think of anything more entertaining to watch and hear about and read about.
This story was amazing. You must read it. It will be one of the best books you've read all year. I read a lot and this was one of the best books I have read in my entire life.
I'll read anything Bradley reads--I read her book Amazing Gracie about how one dog escaped a puppy mill, but that's for a different review.
Please read this book. It's truly amazing. It's a fun read and you will not want to put it down.
February 8, 2018
Carol Bradley’s Last Chain on Billie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped The Big Top tells a tale from America’s not-so-distant past, an era when traveling circuses were splashy entertainment in small towns and sprawling cities and elephants trained to do tricks were a main attraction.
It was a time well before the animal rights movement, wildlife sanctuaries and heightened awareness of the cruel practices of too many trainers -- not just of elephants, but of dogs, horses and big cats also caged to ride the circus circuit.
Taking center stage is a female Asian elephant named Billie, a resilient animal that endures decades of confinement, neglect, travel in the freezing cold and blazing heat and pain, all to make a buck for circus owners and the trainers who force Billie and other elephants to learn tricks that wreck their ponderous bodies.
Bradley shows the underbelly of the circus world and zoos that used to trade animals in a symbiotic relationship linked by money. However, she paints a word picture that isn’t just black and white, but includes the nuanced shades of gray -- the good-hearted trainers who love their animals, but still subject them to captivity and treatment that seem so cruel by today’s standards.
That’s the strength of this book. Bradley is clearly on the side of the angels, but she refrains from hammering the reader with incessant preaching. And she doesn’t judge the human characters of her story by today’s standards in the retroactive and damning style of less gifted writers.
Bradley doesn’t take cheap shots. With a reporter’s impartial eye and neutral tone, she gets out of the way of her story and lets the facts speak the truth. Along the way, the reader is treated to rich sidebars about the capture and training of elephants as beasts of burden and the strong bond some elephants developed with their trainers
Ultimately, Billie’s tale is one of redemption and freedom. After decades as a circus performer, burdened by the label of being dangerous, she is rescued to live out her years in a sanctuary. Old habits learned in captivity die hard, though, and Billie clings to the past she had to live for far too long -- one last chain before she could become truly free.
The author provided a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
It was a time well before the animal rights movement, wildlife sanctuaries and heightened awareness of the cruel practices of too many trainers -- not just of elephants, but of dogs, horses and big cats also caged to ride the circus circuit.
Taking center stage is a female Asian elephant named Billie, a resilient animal that endures decades of confinement, neglect, travel in the freezing cold and blazing heat and pain, all to make a buck for circus owners and the trainers who force Billie and other elephants to learn tricks that wreck their ponderous bodies.
Bradley shows the underbelly of the circus world and zoos that used to trade animals in a symbiotic relationship linked by money. However, she paints a word picture that isn’t just black and white, but includes the nuanced shades of gray -- the good-hearted trainers who love their animals, but still subject them to captivity and treatment that seem so cruel by today’s standards.
That’s the strength of this book. Bradley is clearly on the side of the angels, but she refrains from hammering the reader with incessant preaching. And she doesn’t judge the human characters of her story by today’s standards in the retroactive and damning style of less gifted writers.
Bradley doesn’t take cheap shots. With a reporter’s impartial eye and neutral tone, she gets out of the way of her story and lets the facts speak the truth. Along the way, the reader is treated to rich sidebars about the capture and training of elephants as beasts of burden and the strong bond some elephants developed with their trainers
Ultimately, Billie’s tale is one of redemption and freedom. After decades as a circus performer, burdened by the label of being dangerous, she is rescued to live out her years in a sanctuary. Old habits learned in captivity die hard, though, and Billie clings to the past she had to live for far too long -- one last chain before she could become truly free.
The author provided a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
June 20, 2017
This book gives a lot of insight about how elephants are treated in zoos and circuses and how much the zoo and circus owners try to cover up the abuse to the public. After doing the Project for Awesome video for English class, I wanted to know more about the Elephant Sanctuary and its elephants, and this book provides the history of the sanctuary and the complications that surround it with the government. Although the Elephant Sanctuary is a great place for elephants to live after years of abuse, it is never the same as the wild from which they are taken when they are young, but the efforts put in by the staff are definitely helping the elephants. This book especially documents the story of Billie, a rebellious elephant who worked in the circus for decades and deemed a "bad elephant" because of her inability to adjust to life in captivity, and it really describes how even though elephants are being placed in a good home with companions of their own kind, they remember everything that has been done to them and will never forgive humans for the harm they have inflicted. There are many ethical questions that surround the use of elephants and other large mammals for entertainment, and this book depicts that life in the circus or zoo in solitary confinement is anything but a life.
Here is a thought for you to ponder: How would you feel if you were stuck in chains, unable to move, and beaten for every wrong move you make? Elephants have skin that is about an inch thick, but their skin is very sensitive, and they can sense that there is a fly on their back. If humans want to be treated well, why should elephants be treated worse than prisoners?
Here is a thought for you to ponder: How would you feel if you were stuck in chains, unable to move, and beaten for every wrong move you make? Elephants have skin that is about an inch thick, but their skin is very sensitive, and they can sense that there is a fly on their back. If humans want to be treated well, why should elephants be treated worse than prisoners?
May 24, 2024
Appalling. Well-written and thoroughly researched, but, Dear God, the evil things man will do for some entertainment. The suffering of these poor elephants is just sickening to read about. And having such naturally long lives, the fact that the elephants had to endure the abuse, violence and suffering for so long is just awful. I am so glad that many cities banned the use of wild animals in circus performances and that so many acts have ceased to use animals for entertainment. How can anyone be entertained knowing what those animals have endured? There must be a special level of hell reserved for Cuneo and the "trainers" who "taught" the elephants to perform.
Bradley gives fine history of elephant capture, training, and performances; however, she used so many names for elephants and circus owners and employees and trainers, that I struggled to keep track of who was who, and at times didn't know if she was referring to a person or an elephant. My number one complaint is that the bolded sections interrupted the momentum of the book. Every time I thought we were getting closer to Billie's freedom, there would be another side story that rehashed the training methods, or the abuse, or told another story of an elephant that was killed by the circus. I wish these sections had been incorporated better so that they didn't feel as though they were bringing the momentum of the book to a halt or, at least, a pause.
Bradley gives fine history of elephant capture, training, and performances; however, she used so many names for elephants and circus owners and employees and trainers, that I struggled to keep track of who was who, and at times didn't know if she was referring to a person or an elephant. My number one complaint is that the bolded sections interrupted the momentum of the book. Every time I thought we were getting closer to Billie's freedom, there would be another side story that rehashed the training methods, or the abuse, or told another story of an elephant that was killed by the circus. I wish these sections had been incorporated better so that they didn't feel as though they were bringing the momentum of the book to a halt or, at least, a pause.
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