Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Humane Society of the United States Wrongly Accuses Owner of Elephants & MD Rennaisance Festival of Cruelty

It makes me sad to say that the Humane Society of the United States has made an accusation of cruelty that is completely invalid against the owner of the Maryland Rennaisance Festival and the owner of the two elephants that are part of the festival every year. What's even worse is that the Humane Society has offices in Washington, DC, but they didn't even send a representative to the Maryland Rennaisance Festival in Crownesville, Maryland to talk to the owner of the elephants and ask about their medical care, health, etc. Instead, the Humane Society has launched an alarmist e-mail campaign and put misleading, erroneous and libelous information on their Web site.

My daddy has worked at the Rennaisance festival doing security for the past six years. Part of his job is escorting the elephants into and out of the park on a regular basis. The escorts are there to keep careless and drunk patrons from running up to or failing to get out of the way of the elephants. Both of the elephants are rescues, and are lovingly cared for by their owner and his family. The elephants are clearly happy and in good health and are very affectionate toward their family and enjoy being around people. Two years ago a complaint was made to PETA about the elephants at the Maryland Rennaisance Festival. A representative from PETA came to the fair, observed the elephants for half a day, talked to their owner, view their vet records, and found the claim to be without basis.

Unfortunatley, this makes my parents and I wonder if the Humane Society's other campaigns are equally poorly researched. It just goes to show - you can't believe everything you read. My daddy has contacted other Rennaisance Festival employees about the Humane Society's campaign and they are all planning to respond to the Humane Society about the serious problems with the lack of research and the false implications made in their campaign.

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9 comments:

  1. BAAAAD people. One should always check out the fact first. No treats for them!

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  2. That's a sad thing. Sorry your mom & dad have lost faith in an organization they liked.

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  3. What is the organization coming to!

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  4. No human organization, no matter how well-intentioned is free of moronic, short-sighted, assuming human beings.

    Take our government for instance.

    I mean it - take our government, please! :)

    Cal

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  5. Cal, that's very true - you are so wise! It's sad that one careless person/issue like this can cause so much pain and trouble for innocent people who love and take good care of their animals.

    If they don't apologize I may have to go bite them on the butt!

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  6. I would be curious to know who made the accusations of cruelty to the Humane Society to begin with and what information they used to back up their abuse charges(maybe a disgruntled employee?). I agree that the Humane Society should have followed up with an investigation before unproven alligations were adopted against the Elephants owners and published on their web site. Someone definitely dropped the ball there! Your husband if he hasn't already might inform the Humane society of his knowledge of the Elephants care.And anyone else that has the same knowledge that these Elephants have been well cared for.
    But we shouldn't blame the Humane society as a whole. Because that is just as bad as blaming a whole breed of dog for the viciousness of a few! That is how the vigilante BSL came about! I have worked at a Humane society as a volunteer, and believe me(no follow up)is not the norm. And I never met more caring people than when I worked there!
    Keep us updated on this story!

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  7. My mommy and daddy already both emailed the Humane Society at two of the email addresses posted on their site. No response. My daddy is having dinner with some friends who work at the festival tonight and he is telling them about the email and web site campaign about the elephants. The Humane Society seems to be on a crusade against elephants at circuses, zoos and fairs, but they still need to check their facts before they say that the elephants are unhappy or poorly treated!

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  8. While it's tue there are some places and people that use cruelty to their animals and use them just for gathering money, that doesn't go to say all are the same.
    You say Peta was there and that's one group I DO NOT TRUST!
    They nay have found nothing wrong, but still wouldn't doubt if they were the troble makers. They don't believe ANY animal should be in captivity. They've been know to spice tapes from other shows and use it against innocent keepers.
    Who knows what they actually reported or showed to the HS.

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  9. I know that is what is so sad about it all. Usually the Humane Society is very good about follow ups. So someone is definitely not doing their job. I am glad your husband is staying in there ... to make the Society come up with an explanation. And he gave them all the facts! Keep us posted. I would be curious to know, what exactly is going on.

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