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Queen
This is the true story of an elephant seized from her home and sold to work in a traveling circus.

Children loved Queen and her forced antics; one of the oldest elephants in the circus, Queen knew her "tricks" almost better than the trainer himself. Wearing a bright red halter with a plume on top, Queen charmed her audience. The laughing children and their parents in the stands were too far back to notice Queen's scars (from many years of training with a bullhook) or the dullness in her one good eye.

Almost 30 years earlier, Queen had been a child herself, not quite 2 years old, living in Thailand under the care of her mother and another female elephant, the two who had tended to her needs ever day sincer her birth. They had taught her how to use her trunk, in work and in play, and had given her a sense of family loyalty. But then Queen was captured, and he life was changed irrevocably by men with whips and guns. One man herded Queen by whipping and shouting at her while another shot her mother, who struggled after her baby until more bullets pulled her down forever.

For the next month, Queen was "broken in" by men who beat her, taunted her, and withheld food and water from her. Tied to stakes in the ground, she was unable to defend herself or seek out shade, shelter, or sustenance. The beating and starving continued for a long time until finally, exhausted, Queen stopped fighting back.

Queen was then transported by ship across the Pacific Ocean, 12,000 miles away from Thailand to the United States. There she was purchased by a large traveling circus, and her training began in earnest.

The man assigned to train Queen held to the philosophy that all "wild" animals should be controlled through force and fear, otherwise they might attack without notice. He used a bullhook and whip liberally, ripping the hook's sharp metal point through her sensitive flesh and whipping Queen's skin again and again on the back of her legs, around her eyes, behind her ears. Everywhere her sensitive skin prickled and smarted. With each crack of the whip, Queen pulled her head to one side and bellowed, but that seemed only to bring more abuse.

Athough Queen learned her "routine" little by little, the beatings hardly seemed to let up. When the trainer was near, Queen braced herself. When he was not present, she could relax a little, but only as much as the chains on her feet and around her neck would allow. At least when she was not in training or a performance, she had the company of the other elephants.

The elephants also traveled together in unheated, non-air-conditioned railway cars. The cars could reach 100 degrees or more in the summer and below-freezing temperatures in the winter. Elephants prefer warmer climates, but they also need water frequently. In the railway cars, water and food were withheld from them, and Queen was often desperate for water by the time they arrived at their destination. Queen and the other elephants traveled like this for more than 11 months out of the year, covering tens of thousands of miles. At each stop, they performed once or twice a day, spending the rest of their time in chains in hangar-like buildings.

Queen's life consisted of travel followed by stays punctuated by performances, followed by more travel, without relief, year after year. Occasionally, a new elephant would be introduced to the group or one would disappear. During one show, another elephant who was balancing on all fours on a small overturned tub suddenly slipped off. Before the ringleader even realized what had happened to her, she had died of a ruptured bladder. Other animals suffered injuries, too. Once and eland broke his neck during transport. Another time, during a training session, a trainer threw a heavy stool at a bear, hitting him hard on the head with it. All the bears had their noses broken during "disciplinary" sessions, and the lions and tigers were choked with ropes around their necks to force them to obey.

As the years went by, Queen observed the pain and injuries of the other animals. She herself was covered with scars, and the parades in city after city had become more and more of a chore. In the lush jungles of her native Thailand, Queen would have lived 60 years or more, but in the circus, she felt like a very old elephant before she was even 30. The cold weather seemed to feel colder in the railway cars and the elephant "warehouses." Queen became very weary and felt ready to give up the struggle.

One exceptionally chilly winter day when the circus trains pulled into New York City after a long trip, workers unloading the car in Madison Square Garden found Queen, for first time in her adult life, lying peacefully inside.
Her long journey was over; the cold trip had killed her.