I have a neighbor who's all whacky about the circus elephants. Wo I asked if she had ever seen them in person at a show, or ever seen them handled in person. The answer was no.

These fools are probably right about whales in small tanks, they are dead wrong about RRBB circus elephants. I got to see that for myself, up close and personal, on at least a dozen occasions in my career. I've run or switched the circus trains in Long Beach and to the Sports Arena. I've watched these domesticated Indian elephants unloaded on many of those occasions and they are amazingly tame and handled with no abuse. Hell, I even got to feed one an apple in Long Beach, they were that mellow.

You could always tell the elephant cars in the train. They loved the motion and would rock back and forth with the motion, and continue, when the train stopped. So you'd always look for the car that was rocking gently and you'd find the elephants.

One crew I was working with in Long Beach even made a special award for one of the trainmasters who was having surgery and missed the RRBB train that year. They made him a get well plaque, with a giant dried gold painted elephant pile, in honor of his missing the circus train.

A similar honor might be in order for the LA City Council who voted to ban the elephants?