With the reopening of the Library on Saturdays, the Kind Kids Club was able to resume meetings in time to speak up for circus animals. A speaker from In Defense of Animals told the kids how elephants in the wild live in highly social groups. Females stay with the herd for life; males leave at about 13 years. Mothers nurse their babies for up to nine years and help babysit their nieces and nephews. They travel up to 25 miles a day and communicate in ways that humans are only recently beginning to understand. Despite the appearance of their thick hides, their skin is extremely sensitive – even to insect bites. They have long memories and elephants reunited after decades remember their old friends. Life in the circus is not fun for these highly intelligent animals. Even under the very best circumstances and with the very best intentions, elephants could not be happy in such surroundings. Baby elephants are torn from their mothers prematurely, tied with ropes in isolation and beaten until their spirit is broken and they fear their trainers. The animals are forced to travel and live in poorly ventilated trailers and boxcars in the most extreme weather conditions for at least 50 weeks a year. They’re denied their basic instincts to forage, roam and live freely. They are chained up to 20 hours a day which causes foot pain and arthritis, the leading reason captive elephants are put to death. The kids learned that there are a number of ways to help these animals. They wrote letters to Madison Square Garden asking them not to have animal acts. They made elephant masks which they will use to explain to others why the circus is no fun for the animals.

They also used baker’s clay to make animal shapes that they brought home to paint – reminders of those animals who are forced to perform against their will. They learned that there are circuses that do not use animal acts (such as Cirque du Soleil) and that by spending their dollars at those that don’t, rather than at those that do, they are sending an important message that might eventually get through and that some day animals will not forced to suffer needlessly only to perform silly, unnatural tricks for humans. After all, what is the thrill of watching an elephant stand on her head with her foot in the air or seeing a muzzled bear riding a bike? It is much better to appreciate these beings in their natural state and to help protect their habitat.