Murder is Everywhere: Charlie the Elephant

Tillkum

This week the documentary film Blackfish was shown on British TV again and I was gnashing my teeth.

As the song says, It wouldn't happen here. It is a thought provoking film about Seaworld and the ethics of keeping animals like Tillikum in that environment. And the dangers to both human and orca in doing so.

I happened to be staying at The Mirage in Las Vegas on the day that Mantecore the tiger ‘attacked’ Roy of Roy and Siegfried fame. I put the word attacked in inverted commas as it may have been an benevolent attack by the tiger who may have sensed his owner was having a stroke. While the situation was horrific and Roy was lucky to survive his injuries, my own default position was that performing with a tiger….. 850 pounds of tiger…… sooner or later, ends in tears.

If you keep sticking your head up a chimney, you will end up with a sooty face.

I don’t know if it is still the case but the tigers at that time were actually in the hotel, in the lobby behind a glass wall….and folk thought was normal. I guess it is for Vegas.

We were shocked.

All domestic cat owners know that Tiddles becomes an end stage predator as soon as he leaves his natural habitat of his pink fleecy bed under the radiator. Dogs have a few thousand years of domesticity to tweak their DNA and we have selectively bred puppy like traits into them which makes Rover much more manageable and useful for us. There’s been many studies of wolf cubs being brought up by humans in a domestic situation. All is well and the pups are just pups until they get to 6-8 weeks old. Then all hell breaks lose and there is a small cuddly wolf jumping on your head to pull the toast out your mouth with his teeth.

In Scotland circuses with live animals (apart from humans) have not been able to perform as they are refused licenses to do so. We have tight bans on keeping wild animals as pets... although there is now a worrying rise in keeping snakes as pets.
That escapes me totally.

The circus comes to town....

My father in law can recall Charlie the elephant walking up the high street in Barrhead because the circus was coming to town. He knew Charlie from the days when he farmed north of Glasgow near Milngavie and Charlie was resident at the local zoo. And Charlie ate a LOT!

He is famous for trying to get into a Pub in Milngavie’s high street and getting stuck in the doorway. ( I mean the elephant got stuck not my father in law – he has never had any trouble getting into a pub!) The local fire brigade was called to get Charlie out and it took them ages due to a lack of specialist elephant freeing equipment.

Charlie caused a crack in the wall over the door and the incident is commemorated with a plaque. He was trying to get inside because his pal Ibrahim was in there, having a quiet little refreshment and Charlie did not approve. The pair were inseparable.

Charlie was caught in the wild somewhere in Southern India when he was five years old. Hunters drove his herd into a trap and he was nearly killed as he was too young to sell and therefore not much use to them. But the children in the local village took pity on him and adopted him. I read that Charlie was always very gentle with children. Maybe he always remembered the kindness they showed to him.

Charlie was then sold to a Chinese Circus who were appearing in Singapore when the Japanese invaded. The elephant was then an official Prisoner of War. The story goes that his handler was told to put Charlie to work clearing trees, when the poor beastie tired, his handler was forced to prod him with a bayonet to keep him going.

In the early 50’s he came to Glasgow - a fine beast by that time. He was six tons in weight and ten feet tall. He loved being in Glasgow with his keeper and that fact that the local diet of buns and yum yums was exactly what he would have eaten if he had stayed in India. Charlie was famous for bathing in Abie Loch. Until the locals realised what he might be doing in (and to) the water supply and started to moan. He was hosed down from then on. The ever faithful Ibrahim slept with Charlie in the elephant house, fully confident that the big beastie would never trample him or roll onto him while fast asleep. The big beastie never did.

The friendly pachyderm remained the star attraction at Craigend Zoo until it closed. Then all 2000 animals were sold off – apart from Charlie who was just too expensive to feed. And then somebody offered to buy him for slaughter. It was reported at the time that Charlie would make 2000 cans of dog food. Singh Ibrahim warned anybody who got too close ‘You shoot Charlie, I shoot you!’

I’m kinda liking the sound of this guy.

A lama in the middle of Govan

A worldwild campaign followed, the media picked up the story, the Lord Provost appealed for clemency, the co-op sent hay, film stars turned up to lend support, money poured in from all round the place to keep him in buns until a home could be found.

Zoos around the world wanted him but his size made transportation difficult. The Donaldson shipping line offered him free passage to Canada. Another company offered to take him back to India and free him. Somebody suggested he could be inflated and floated to his destination (????). And some English woman offered to follow the route taken by Hannibal and ride him over the Alps.

In the end Charlie was rescued from the slaughterman by the famous Billy Butlin who took him to The Ayr holiday camp.

Tragedy struck in 1961 when Ibrahim died and Charlie started to lose the plot and became grumpy, then violent. By now he was in Yorkshire and the staff of that holiday camp had no option but to put him to sleep. He was euthanased by sealing off his stall and gassing him with the fumes from a lorry.

Some sources say that Charlie was buried on that site. The camp closed in 1983, was demolished in 1989 and planning permission was granted to rebuild on the site in the early 2000’s. I can’t find any record of him being dug up. I think he would have been too big to miss.

Another source said that he was stuffed and is now in a museum in Brazil.

I think its fair to say that we now know elephants are very intelligent with a huge capacity for emotional thought and altruism. We would all be uncomfortable with this…