Strange lives – The elephant
The strangest thing I’ve ever seen?
I don’t even know. I saw some REALLY weird stuff when I worked for Strange Lives magazine.
For instance: I remember this one time they sent me to interview a circus animal trainer. I thought it was a pretty boring subject, but I hadn’t been there that long, so I just did as I was told.
I was interviewing the guy next to his elephants. I didn’t ask for it, but he seemed intent on showing them off one by one, all proud of himself. As we talked, he was going on about how the circus life is as stressful to the animals as it is to humans, if not more, but how it’s a different kind of stress, etc., but how certain things relieve stress regardless of species.
So as he was talking, this elephant kept poking him on the shoulder with his trunk.
“Is he saying hello?”, I asked.
“No”, he said. “This means he wants one of his own stress reliefs.”
And like it was the most normal thing in the world, the trainer pulled a cigarette pack from his pocket, took one from the pack, lit it, and gave it to the elephant. And I was just there, speechless, looking at an elephant smoking a cigarette.
And the guy just laughed.
“It’s like I say”, he said.”Everyone gets rid of stress however they can.”
So we moved on to the next elephant, and that one started poking his shoulder too.
“Is this one a smoker too?”
“Nah.” The trainer had his back to me, at this point, and he was messing around with something that he took out of his other pocket, but I couldn’t see what it was.
Then he puts something up to the elephant’s trunk. It was a mirror, with three white dust lines on it, and the elephant inhaled it all in an instant.
I was kind of shocked, and the guy must’ve seen that in my face. But he just shrugged.
“Friend, I’m just paid to give them what they need”, he said. “I’m not one to judge.”
