Featured Letters: Wrong to publish elephant photo

To the Editor:

After all the articles and protests, one in a torrential downpour in Greenport, against the use of animals in circuses, we get a front page photo of an elephant being hosed down by a benevolent fireman in the Aug. 1 issue of The Suffolk Times.

I’m certain that if the sponsors of the circus told their children and grandchildren how the elephants came to be in the circus, they’d have nightmares. These animals have been stolen from their mothers at a very young age; been orphaned because their mothers were shot and killed and their heads hacked off for the ivory in the tusks; and been mistreated in the course of their training to do silly tricks, and worse, rise on their hind legs, putting all their massive weight on their joints.

Protests were held wherever the circus appeared on Long Island, and letters from Greenport residents have been sent to the fire department asking that consideration be given to hiring a circus that does not use animals — so far to no avail.

But hope springs eternal and, as I did last year, I will hold the hope that the good people in Greenport will think of the welfare of the animals who are taken from their natural environment and made to behave in ways and in places that are alien to them. This is an affront to their dignity.

Marilyn Flynn, Cutchogue

To the Editor:

Your  front page  photo of an elephant being sprayed by a fireman is an endorsement of the inhuman treatment practiced by the Cole Bros. Circus. Your pursuit of profit has clouded your moral compass.

David Markel, Southold