Over the weekend here in Hessen (my German state).....we had an old retired guy who got up early on Saturday (6AM) and started a walk in the woods near his place.....coming face-to-face with an elephant.
Things occurred....no witnesses.....and the elephant whooped the guy.....killing him.
No one says much over speculation. Elephant was an escapee from a local circus, and might have been mad or angry. The old guy might have said something or worn some funny bright clothing. Maybe the old guy had some kind of Old Spice stuff on him and had a funny smell.
Anyway....the old guy is dead and political folks are hyping up a campaign.
In Germany.....you never let an event like this go by.....without making trouble.
So the Green Party Environmental Minister for the state-level says that there needs to be a ban on wild animals in circuses that travel around the state (bears, elephants, wild big cats, etc). Chimps seem ok, along with camels and horses.....guerrillas might be a problem.....and I imagine boas and big snakes might be in conflict too.
The affect here? Well.....if you take away elephants and lions/tigers and bears.....that's the end of most circuses that might travel through the state.
I'd take a guess that in the Wiesbaden area.....we have around a dozen shows per year. They show up on a Tuesday.....set up a big tent and run shows for four nights (Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday). You might be able to get 300 folks into the tent, and it's mostly parents with kids. A traveling circus with just horses and clowns? There might be a couple, but the meat-and-potatoes of circus operations involve elephants, bears and tigers.
Success of a ban? It's hard to say if the right-leaning CDU would agree with this, or if the left-leaning SPD would go along with it.
All of this....over an old retired guy encountering one single elephant on a back trail of some forest? Yeah, that's the emphasis of this story. If it'd been a wolf? The Green Guys would be in total fear of getting unfriendly with the free-wolf community. It's best not to ask them what they'd do when wolves finally attack some kid or some retiree here in Hessen.
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