Dear Enchanted. Have Trunk Will travel is the worst with their elephants, beating them, tazering them and talking down to them. Tai in the movie "Water for Elephants" was really abused like that as portrayed in the movie. I can send you a link or go to my blog which is www.EarthandAnimalwellness.com and look up how Have Trunk Will travel beats the elephants. They have a little elephant that they grab by the trunk and wap him on the head with a bullhook. They are evil people trained by Ringling Bros. See www.ringlingbeartsanimals.com and see how they treat their elephants. They need to be shut down!!!!

I am not familiar with the elephants on the east coast (I am in California), but, we have a lovely ranch, Have Trunk Will Travel, here at Lake Elsinore that provides Asian elephants for weddings, film and tv. The owners and their staff are gentle and kind with their family of elephants. We have observed them at many events and have nothing but good things to say about them. The "girls" and "boys" seem to like people and are quite friendly and sociable "on the job". Kari and Gary are quite protective of their animals. Here is a very small excerpt of their website:

As human
population increases in Asia and Africa, there becomes less and less
room for elephants and other wildlife. The animals are forced into
smaller areas of their land. This land is quickly stripped of
vegetation to satisfy enormous appetites. Elephants resort to raiding
farmers’ fields. In these instances, they are often wounded or killed.

Given the
situation, it becomes evident that the key to the elephant’s survival is
to nurture and breed them under human care. Asian elephant importation
has been severely restricted in the United States. Our government
heavily regulates the acquisition and ownership of elephants here, where
they are protected. This leaves them in a land that was once theirs,
but is rapidly becoming as endangered as the animals themselves.

We at Have Trunk
Will Travel strongly believe that elephants under human care will be
the key to the survival of their species. Through the sharing of ideas
and information, we are helping to establish the high standard of care
and humane treatment that elephants deserve.

Would you go to the circus? If your answer is no, then don't rent an elephant either.

First off, Commerford is a "zoo" in name only. They're actually a traveling show. Traveling shows take lousy care of their animals. Google "Commerford Zoo complaints" and see what you come up with. Here's one example --
http://anislandofmisfittoys.bl...

Second, everything Deb Robinson writes is true. Elephants in traveling shows, just as in the circus, are trained with brutality.

Third, many elephants in traveling shows and the circus have been exposed to tb. They catch it from their trainers/handlers (people who work for these kinds of operations often have criminal records, drug and/or alcohol problems. etc.) and, yes, it's the kind of tb that can be trasmitted to back people.

Come on, Washingtonian, do a little research before you publish crap like this.

Or perhaps elephant rides could go the way of many, many things that were once considered "traditions" but have been recognized as cruel, and abandoned. Those "handlers (that) guide the elephant" do so with weapons designed to provoke pain and fear, and thus obedience. Trucking an elephant 700 miles in a day for a one-hour procession is the height of selfishness and indifference to the needs of these animals, who are designed to roam for 20 hours of the day. Not to mention the danger to the public if one of these wild animals decides she's had enough.