Have You Been to See the Elephant...

I've been looking at this old photo taken during summer vacation with my family in 1959. It's a visit to what I think is either the San Antone or maybe Houston zoo. That's me in the front seat riding an elephant. I don't see any adults in the photo. Maybe in the 1950s kids just knew how to ride elephants and elephants knew what to do when they were loaded up with kids. It's another case of seems like things never going to change and then just like overnight it's different.   

I don't think you can ride an elephant anymore. Citing the public's changing attitude about animals and of course, the most important, the decline in ticket sales and the rule of the almighty dollar Ringling Brothers and Shrine Circus shows no longer use elephants in their shows. I bet you can't ride an elephant anymore but Cathy recalls the kids riding one at a Renaissance Festival as recently as the 1990s. 

Facts and figures show steady decline of elephant populations. Commercial bans on ivory importation into the USA took effect in 2016. In 2018 after some confusing flip flopping around the Trump administration reversed a ban on the importation of elephant trophies. Recently footage of a botched 2013 elephant hunt by NRA president Wayne LaPierre has surfaced and it is good evidence that he should not be allowed to hunt, have a gun or be around elephants. 

It seems when reading wildlife news that detrimental changes over the last four years, human behaviors and the customs of the ivory trade are going to take some time to reverse. I hope the elephants hang in there. One day it will be different but probably not overnight.