Chained, beaten bloody and weak from starvation, heart-wrenching book describes how Billie the elephant escaped the barbaric torture and indignities under the big top and finally found sanctuary in Tennessee
- Billie, now 52, was brought to America from India as a baby
- 'For so much of her life, Billie had been manhandled regardless of how she behaved. If she blinked they would hit her. If she breathed they would hit her'
- Training her to perform circus tricks, sharp bullhooks were used to dig in and yank hard on tender spots inside her ears, the folds of her mouth and under her arms and feet
- They were left to stand in the fifteen gallons of urine and two to three hundred pounds of waste each a day
- Billie had been abused for so long, she was angry and elephants never forget their abuser - or the pain
- It would take five years before the wary elephant would let staff at The Elephant Sanctuary, where she now resides, to cut off her chain
‘I saw how animals in the circus are routinely beaten. They live in constant fear. For them, the circus is a real-life horror show’, testified whistleblower Jodey Eliseo, a former dancer in Ringling’s ring, who witnessed many brutal acts against elephants in Ringling’s Barnum and Bailey circus.
Barbaric treatment is inflicted on elephants using bullhooks, an instrument that looks like a fireplace poker with a sharp, steel-tipped spike and hook. It is used to dig in and yank hard on tender spots inside the ears, the folds of the mouth, under the arms, under the chin, around the feet, in or around the anus.
They are beaten with the solid end of the bullhook that resembles a baseball bat and targeting the ankles or wrist close to the bone, on the head. It inflicts great pain as well as causing massive nerve damage and a hemorrhaged brain.
They are given a mighty electric shock in the ears, mouths, vaginas and anuses.
Chains on all four legs of the elephant are tightened until the elephant collapses and then they are beaten on 'general principle.'
Read more:
Last Chain on Billie How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top by Carol Bradley Daily Mail Online
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