The Elephant's Graveyard

June 13, 2004 3:22 PM

Goodbye, Norma Jean. Norma the elephant was killed by a stroke of lightning. Seventy years earlier, though, Topsy was electrocuted by Thomas Edison, to "demonstrate" the danger of alternating current. Only a few years later, Mary was sentenced to death by hanging, to the amusement and edification of onlookers. It's rough being an elephant in America.
posted by SPrintF (11 comments total)

I loved going to see Ziggy at Brookfield Zoo when I was a kid.

People are horrible to animals.
posted by boredomjockey at 3:38 PM on June 13, 2004

nice addenum to this post
posted by clavdivs at 3:57 PM on June 13, 2004

That Mary article is horrific.

Sung: That's Entertainment!
posted by Busithoth at 4:34 PM on June 13, 2004

It's rough being an elephant in America.

True, but it's getting a little bit less so. In a few decades, our children may look at the practice of penning these remarkable creatures with the same disbelief with which we regard that of electrocuting them.
posted by soyjoy at 5:20 PM on June 13, 2004

i blame the liberals
posted by Satapher at 5:26 PM on June 13, 2004

Bring Back the Elephants!
posted by homunculus at 5:45 PM on June 13, 2004

what? no tusko?
posted by steef at 6:48 PM on June 13, 2004

What about Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, GA? They have an elephant buried on campus.
posted by aaaaa at 7:15 PM on June 13, 2004

Slightly off-topic: frankly, I'm shocked that there are still zoos that have the old-style cages and pens and whatnot. Ever since I visited the Minneapolis-St. Paul zoo twenty years ago, with its vast tracts of natural habitat for the animals to roam within (in some cases, you're lucky to see them—I remember the thrill of seeing, after waiting twenty minutes, the shape of a lion moving throught the grass). I suppose some animals can be happy in relatively small pens and cages, but surely the big animals can't. Having visited a progressive zoo like that one, I'm certainly not opposed to zoos on principle. Just the old-style ones.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 8:17 PM on June 13, 2004

when i went to school up in johnson city, tn last august, we passed by this small town called erwin. my friends spoke of erwin as if i should know about it. they explained, "that's where they hung an elephant."
posted by y0bhgu0d at 10:08 PM on June 13, 2004

better then being a black person at the time.
posted by delmoi at 11:37 PM on June 13, 2004