Speciesists Celebrate Elephant "Parade" in Ireland.

[The "It" Parade.]

A HERD OF elephants stampeded down Main Street, Portarlington last week … well not quite, but they did provide an amazing sight not seen in the town in years.

At around lunchtime, traffic and pedestrians came to a standstill and stood in amazement, as five large elephants marched triumphantly down the town.

The fab five veered off towards the car park area of SuperValu supermarket, where they were fed with fresh fruit by their handlers before making their way back down the town.

“It was some sight,” said local woman Margaret GujitLawlor. “I was in my car with Ann Dunne, who is the secretary of Portarlington Combined Residents’ Association and also from the Dirty Old Towns project, and my son. We couldn’t believe our eyes. It was a great promotional stunt by the circus that was in the town. It was great craic,” explained Margaret.

“We thought at first it was Niall Donogher from the Portarlington St Patrick’s Day parade committee who had organised it. Every year he tells us that he is having elephants in the parade,” joked Margaret.

“Then there was a bet between myself and Ann on who would have the first of the pictures up on our Facebook pages. Both of us took pictures and got home as quickly as we could to upload them, only to find that local photographer Con Murphy had gotten his up first after taking a picture of them in SuperValu’s car park eating fruit,” she added.

The jovial Portarington woman went on: “Both Ann and I had a great laugh. We wondered if any of them had done a big poo in the middle of the road? 

What damage would that do to a car if it ran into it?

We also wondered would the dung be any use for our roses?,” Margaret laughed.

http://www.laois-nationalist.ie/tabId/153/itemId/13454/Have-you-her...

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=289138887800593&set=a.11...

 

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http://instagr.am/p/iCBJc/

 

http://www.worldirish.com/listening-post/view/worldirish-roundup-we...

[Lise Duck]

WTF?

[Lise Duck]

Sorry, not the most constructive immediate response - but probably a natural reaction to people thinking that is a vaguely appropriate environment for elephants. Where did the elephants come from? Did anyone ever discover who was responsible?

[FM]

It's by a circus according to the article. The circus in the area at the time with Elephants is one run by the Courtney Brothers.

You can see to the right of the pic the arm of someone dressed in circus clothes

Or in this picture more clearly http://instagr.am/p/iCBJc/

It's a shame that the picture isn't closer to see the type of pole he's carrying.

But that only goes to show the degree of treatment in this instance and no the core questions of why are we using these animals.

[Lise Duck]

@FM Ugh, figured as much. There's something really pathetic about seeing this sort of thing as entertainment...

[Carolyn Bailey]

Wow, what a sad story, on many levels. 

I can only imagine how terrified these elephants would have been, as they "marched triumphantly" up and down a main city street in terror. it's all good though, a few humans got a kick out of it, and I just bet the circus gets a lot more patrons too. 

How sad for the women in the story that they're so disconnected and speciesist too.