Written by Jennifer O’Connor | July 23, 2014
If you can finish a book after going through a box of tissues and still love it, the author has done something very right. Carol Bradley is such an author, and her book is titled Last Chain on Billie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top. Even for those who already know about the desperate plight of captive elephants, this bookis a gut-wrenching account of how profoundly elephants suffer in captivity. Yet after reading about how these animals can recover if given the chance, you close the book ready to take action in order to make that happen.
Last Chain on Billie Book CoverThe contents alternate between chapters about modern-day elephant exploitation and historical accounts of how we started using elephants in entertainment, including how they’re captured in the wild, their grueling transport to the U.S., their high mortality rates, and the public’s fascination with these gigantic beings.
Although the book details the grim existence of Billie (a female Asian elephant), its overall theme concerns all elephants in the zoo and circus industries. Bradley tells us about the habits, histories, and personalities of many other individual elephants. Billie’s history is particularly abysmal, but she also represents all the elephants who have known nothing but misery in captivity.
In addition, the book focuses on the entrenched histories of the circus families. The people PETA protests against today are the descendants of the families of old that founded Carson & Barnes Circus, the Hawthorn Corporation, Kelly Miller Circus, Tarzan Zerbini Circus, and, of course, Ringling Bros. Little—if anything—has changed. These circus clans are still beating and chaining elephants and staunchly defending it, just as their ancestors did.
Over and over again, elephant trainers are quoted talking about their use of sheer force to break the animals. Bradley describes PETA’s video that shows notorious trainer Tim Frisco as he beats shrieking elephants and tells other trainers, “Make ‘em scream!”
Bradley also pulls back the curtain on how inept the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is at imposing meaningful penalties and punishments, using John Cuneo and his Hawthorn Corporation as the case study.
Elephants at Hawthorn were beaten and housed in filthy, dark barns. Many were sick with tuberculosis and life-threatening foot problems. They were chained, front and back, for months on end—and in many cases, the USDA just kept delaying any kind of meaningful action. Cuneo was completely uninterested in why Billie was “hostile” and aggressive and attributed it to her “not being a pleasant elephant” instead of her life of beatings and captivity. After Billie rebelled and attacked a trainer, she was taken off the road and lived in chains in a dark Hawthorn barn for 10 years.
Even when Cuneo was finally forced to relinquish 15 elephants, including Billie, he was still allowed to keep his exhibitor’s license and to continue to torment 87 tigers and one lion. He is still in business, renting out big cats, to this day.
Last Chain on Billie is ultimately a book with a happy ending for some elephants. Billie, for example, is retired to The Elephant Sanctuary, where after she spends a considerable amount of time adjusting, she at last allows the chain attached to her leg to be removed.
This book is a wake-up call about how many elephants have suffered profoundly in captivity and how many still suffer. And it’s a call to action.
Order your copy of ‘Last Chain on Billie’
Take action against the Hawthorn Corporation
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Anything Equine & Canine 
Jan 20, 2015 @ 09:18:39
My own review: (Rose Miller)
This story was awful to read, but should be a required read for everyone who thinks circus and zoos take wonderful care of the elephants. I was shocked beyond belief to hear how they are treated and “trained.” Most of us who would take the time to check out this book, love animals and maybe especially elephants will be appalled. Two sad facts: the elephants ARE ABUSED, and the USDA who should be looking out for them doesn’t have the money or political clout. Circuses have too much clout of their own, and as the USDA tries to save an elephant, and stop abusive practices, they are stymied at each turn. It is the money again. Circuses have a lot and defend their awful practices and the guardians do not have enough. One positive thing shared is the beautiful elephant sanctuary in Tennessee that has given refuge to many (but getting the elephants released from zoos and circuses is more than hard). Although HSUS and PETA are almost hated by many, they are working to try to make a difference and they have more money. Reading about how the elephants are caught…babies, that is, (mothers are killed) and callously shipped and even though they do cost a lot of money, they are not cared for correctly is distressing to the extreme. Performing circus acts is actually detrimental to an elephant. Also shown is that public opinion CAN AND DOES make a difference. Many elephant abuses were/are reported by regular people/spectators and enough of them did/do it to make a difference at least in some of the animals’ lives. I have always liked zoos, but after reading this, I think elephants shouldn’t be in a zoo. Part of the book shares what some of the better zoos have done to help, but that really isn’t enough in my and the author’s opinion. Elephants have soft feet not like a hoof, and cannot take the rigors of hard cement, they need regular “toenail” trims and they require so much more land to roam/exercise than even the new ones provide…but those improvements are gratifying. AND definitely never in a circus, never, ever, in my opinion, and I will NEVER go to one again. Elephants are chained by one or all legs for control. Elephants, really do not forget, can harbor resentment and hate toward men and eventually snap, cause the demise of some of the men and usually the end of the elephant. This is not the animal’s fault. It is Man’s fault. Billie was determined by her handlers to be dangerous, but they kept using her in the circus and torturing her without reason with beatings and the bull hook…just because she had a bad reputation. Eventually it really messed up her mind. The book does have a happy ending though. After years at the Sanctuary, they were finally able to remove the chain around Billie’s leg which she had for so many years, even at the Sanctuary, as it was too dangerous to a human to remove it. Read, and weep, as I did, and then contribute to the Elephant Sanctuary and humane groups that try to help. I do so appreciate Carol’s effort to expose the elephant trade and the consequent abuses. http://www.elephants.com/ Also watch some of the youtube videos of the elephants at the Sanctuary and see Billie and some of her friends.
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