Pachyderm could join parade

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Organizers of the Fourth of July parade are

considering whether to rent an elephant, a move that has animal rights

activists concerned.

“What’s a parade without an elephant?” Mayor Dave Garofalo asked.

Seeing the enormous mammal lumbering along the city streets would give

people, especially children, an enormous thrill, he said.

But the prospect of forcing a pachyderm to endure screaming crowds shocks

Eileen Olson, director of the local Humane Society.

“For them to be on display for us, I think it’s wrong,” she said.

Trained elephants are too often beaten into submission so they can

perform tricks for people’s entertainment, said resident Veda Stram, an

outreach coordinator for the Orange County People for Animals, an

educational group based in Irvine.

“Every being has a right to its own life, [but] they’re slaves,” she

said. “You can’t have happy slaves.”

Garofalo points out that the parade over the years has had hundreds of

horses without anyone making a fuss.

Elephants have appeared at least twice in the parade’s 96-year history,

most recently in 1998, said Ronnie Lomas, co-owner of Pageantry

Productions. The company helps the city put on the celebration, which

attracts as many as 250,000 people.

The major stumbling block has been finding a sponsor to pay the $2,000

fee for leasing the animal for the day, she said.

The co-owner of the company that has offered to provide the elephant said

its animals are treated very well.

“I think they’re better cared for than most people’s kids,” said Kari

Johnson of Perris-based Have Trunk Will Travel.

The pachyderms are well-fed, bathed regularly and given plenty of

exercise, she said. Taking out the elephants to events such as the parade

earns the company enough money to help pay for research that promotes the

species’ continued survival in the face of poaching and loss of their

habitat.

“Right now, the wild is not a good place for elephants to be,” she said.

A final decision on whether to rent an elephant will be made in June,

city spokesman Rich Barnard said.

QUESTION

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