The South Carolina State Fair is one of the biggest attractions for the general public that Columbia holds every year. Organized in 1869, the State Fair combines a mixture of livestock competitions with entertainment, appealing to both rural and urban crowds of all ages. After hearing numerous people rave about how much fun it is, I decided to go check it out. Like the funfairs at home, the grounds were lit up with Ferris wheels, dodgems and rollercoasters. There were candy floss stools and competitions to win enormous cuddly toys alongside various other lucky-dip and betting games. But there was one thing that really stood out as different—and no, it wasn’t the fried goodies! Although trying fried cookie dough and fried Oreos was definitely a novelty, it wasn’t the Southern food that shocked me.
It was the elephant.
Plodding around a tiny penned-in area was a ginormous elephant giving rides to children for $5 a piece. Words actually failed me for a few moments while the image I was witnessing began to sink in. Sure, I’ve seen elephants at the zoo, but they have huge outside areas to roam around in, fit with large grass paddocks, pools, mud wallows, dust baths and all sorts of other facilities close to their natural habitat. In the UK, it is illegal to have exotic animals at travelling circuses, so when I saw this beautiful elephant trapped—used as nothing more than a money making machine—my heart went sank.
For me, there is no place in today’s society where it’s acceptable to use wild animals for our own entertainment purposes. I’m not a huge animal rights activist or anything, but I couldn’t help but think about that poor elephant when I got back to my apartment. I cannot see how being transported from one place to the next and performing in loud and unfamiliar surroundings is healthy for them. Some people may argue that by having elephants at these types of fairs, the general public get to see an animal that they might not have the chance to see in the wild. But I think if you want to learn about elephants, or educate your children about them, one of the worst ways you can do it is to let your kids ride one at a fair or see one dressed up and performing at a circus.