Caroline Dillard Free response 3: 4/16/23

 I attended the keynote speaker event for Paideia this past week. Dr. Rothfels is an animal historian from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He gave a talk titled “Elephant Trails: A Personal Journey” in which he regales the history of elephants that lived in zoos and circuses in the West. This was very fascinating. Dr. Rothfels' work told a story about each elephant starting from the findings of tusk and bone collections to telling the elephant's whole life story. Each elephant he told us about had a history in which he uncovered. There were many old pictures from the early 1900s. The elephant stories were both joyful and sad. Many of the elephants were treated badly. One elephant tried to kill zookeepers on several occasions so his feet had to be chained up and eventually he was shot. One circus elephant had to be constrained by hundreds of pounds of chains every time they traveled. This picture was shocking. The elephant himself was a display of chains. I found this talk very interesting and engaging, but I couldn't help thinking to myself, “why is this important?” I grappled with this question after the talk had finished and came to the conclusion that the history of elephants is just as important as the history of any animal that has been “domesticated” or used for human amenities. The culture of keeping and training elephants and any wild animals for that matter is something I feel humans are moving away from. I really felt like I came to know the personality of the elephants Dr. Rothfels was describing and because of that, I know that now when I see an elephant I will think of this event and wonder how each elephant got to be where it is today.