Elephant execution in the United States

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Not to be confused with Execution by elephant.
Men gathered in San Francisco, 1936, to shoot an elephant called Wally (UC Berkeley Libraries, BANC PIC 2006.029)

Elephant execution in the United States, sometimes elephant lynching, was the killing of an elephant in order to punish it for behaviors that had inconvenienced, threatened, injured, or killed humans. Elephant execution is distinct from both elephant euthanasia (in which the animal is ill or otherwise incapacitated) and from killing an elephant that is in the midst of an ongoing attack or "rampage." Elephant execution is a ritual process with a pseudo-legal or performative aspect. Documenting the execution or the body with film or still photos was not uncommon.

History[edit]

Elephant executions occurred most frequently in the United States during the carnival-circus era of roughly 1850 to 1950; at least 36 elephants were executed between the 1880s and the 1920s.[1] During this era, elephant behavior was often explained anthropomorphically, and thus granted a moral dimension wherein their actions were "good" or "bad."[2]

American animal trainers had little understanding of or experience with elephant musth, a period of late adolescence when juvenile bull elephants begin to transition hormonally and behaviorally to adulthood.[3] The consequences of this ignorance were reliably disastrous: for example, in Mississippi in March 1869 during a phase now recognized as musth, a bull elephant named Hercules became enraged, broke his chains, charged a freight train, and succeeded in derailing the locomotive (at the expense of one of his tusks). The locomotive then crashed into the lion cage, killing the female and releasing the male.[4] (The fate of Hercules himself is unclear.)[4] In the mind of the animal trainer or carnival owner of the era, a bull elephant was "an unruly brute…who required frequent punishment, without which he would become completely uncontrollable and destroy what showmen built."[5] Non-compliance with human commands was viewed as an elephant "trying to avoid work."[6]

Execution of elephants was thus viewed as appropriate retribution for "criminal" behavior, especially when an elephant had harmed or killed trainers or bystanders.[7] There was a clear-cut parallel between elephant executions and the lynching of minorities, which was both recognized at the time and remains a subject of scholarship today.[8]

List of executed elephants[edit]

  • Albert, Keene, New Hampshire, 1885 - firing squad, first public execution of an elephant[9]
  • Black Diamond, Corsicana, Texas, 1929 - shot[10]
  • Charlie, Universal City, California, 1923 - method disputed, probably garroted[11]
  • Charlie Ed (later known as Wally), San Francisco, 1936 - shot[12][10]
  • Chief, 1860s - unknown, possibly electrocuted[13]
  • Columbia, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1907 - garrotted[14]
  • Fritz, Barnum & Bailey European Tour, Tours, France, 1902 - garrotted - souvenir photo captioned "Dead elephants are good elephants."[15]
  • Gypsy, Valdosta, Georgia, 1902 - head shot[16]
  • Mandarin, Atlantic coast, 1902 - strangled[17]
  • Mary, Erwin, Tennessee, 1916 - hanged[18]
  • Pilot, location unknown (possibly New York), 1883 - shot[19]
  • Tip, New York City, 1894 - poisoned[9]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ Wood (2012), p. 407.
  2. ^ Nance (2013), p. 108.
  3. ^ Nance (2013), pp. 111–112.
  4. ^ a b Nance (2013), pp. 114–115.
  5. ^ Nance (2013), p. 106.
  6. ^ Nance (2013), p. 154.
  7. ^ Wood (2012), p. 415.
  8. ^ Wood (2012), p. 439.
  9. ^ a b Wood (2012), p. 413.
  10. ^ a b Bradford, Gardner (1936-07-19). "Heaven Have Mercy on Our Souls!". Sunday Magazine. The Los Angeles Times. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-12-05. & "Heaven Have Mercy on Our Souls [part 2 of 2]". p. 29.
  11. ^ Reeder, Thomas (2021). Time is money! : the Century, Rainbow, and Stern Brothers comedies of Julius and Abe Stern. Orlando, Florida. ISBN 978-1-62933-798-2. OCLC 1273678339.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ^ Deshais, Nicholas (2016-03-13). "Large and at-large in 1926: the year more than a dozen elephants were on the loose in B.C." Spokane Spokesman-Review. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  13. ^ Nance (2013), pp. 116–117.
  14. ^ Nance (2012), pp. 214–219.
  15. ^ Nance (2013), pp. 162–163.
  16. ^ Nance (2013), pp. 187–194.
  17. ^ Nance (2012), p. 13.
  18. ^ Wood (2012), p. 440.
  19. ^ Wood (2012), p. 412.

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Rothfels, Nigel (2021). Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures. Animals, history, culture series. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-4259-4.
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