Animal
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Poetry

In Loving Memory of Helen
By Laura Barlow - [email protected] 

Step up, Come one, Come all,
To the most BRUTAL show of them all!
This is the story of a kind, gentle friend,
One who's life came to a slow painful end.
She sent a message out to us all,
One which people care not to know.
46 years old, disabled and in pain,
She kept on performing,
So the circus could gain.
Took as a child from a place she loved,
Now she died......
All of her life, forced to do tricks...
And give elephant rides.
A life of misery, a life of pain...
A life of bullhooks, a life of chains.
2 years of protest, to get her let go...
IGNORED!
She died at the hands of Clyde-Beatty and Cole.

~ "Helen, a 46-year-old disabled elephant traveling with Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus, suffered from a painful knee injury. Three veterinarians had described Helen's disability as a chronic, degenerative condition causing pain-related lameness, which is aggravated by grueling circus routines. Despite requests to Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus to release Helen, into retirement at a sanctuary, they kept her traveling, performing, and giving rides. This past April [2001], after years of abuse at the hands of Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. circus, Helen Died." ~

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