http://www.startribune.com/blogs/kersten/?p=138 is a journalist's newspaper blog entry (does it count as a blog if she is a professional journalist writing on her paper's website? it's maybe more of a continuous editorial... either way, Katherine Kersten of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has a lot of interesting stuff) on the city of Minneapolis trying to keep circuses from being able to bring exotic animals like elephants to town. Silly, right? Some animal rights group that has Richard Pryor as a spokesman says circus elephants are chained up, not allowed to choose mates, forced to do unnatural acts. Which the journo/blogger reminds us sounds a lot like a pet dog. And don't we always feel bad when dogs roam wild? In fact we kill them if no one claims them. So do these animal rights people want the circus to let the elephants roam wild here? Or do they want them shipped back to Asia where their natural environments are shrinking rapidly due to human encroachment? Kersten goes on to mention some fascinating stuff about elephants I never knew. Did you know the importation of elephants has been banned since the 70's, so Barnum and Bailey and Ringling Bros or whatever they are called has an elephant center in Florida. And elephants like to stand on their heads for fun. At least I guess it's fun after all the positive reinforcement. And heck, I wanna be able to stand on my head.

Ok, elephants are cool! There used to be elephants the size of large pigs! How cute would that be as a pet? And fun to train.