trigger warning, attached is a very old, strange photo of an elephant being hanged by the neck

My area lore has a few, but the one that sticks out the most is that in 1916, an Asian elephant named Mary came through town with a travelling circus, and killed a man. An inexperienced drifter acting as her handler had been prodding her to keep her on the move while she was trying to eat a piece of melon rind in the road, she lost it and crushed his head, and she was sentenced to death. Unable to find a gun powerful enough to do the job, knowing that poison was unlikely to work, and after several even worse, more violent suggestions, they hung her with a railway crane in nearby Erwin Tennessee. Such a sad story, but a memorable one. I can't get this image out of my head. The violence on an animal of that size is as surreal as anything I've ever seen. Everyone around here knows the story and even the most fascistic conservatives aren't proud of this bit of history.

In 2016 Erwin started an elephant parade and a community initiative to raise money for a local elephant sanctuary to atone for their dark history. It would be nice if we also took such steps to make reparations for the many black men lynched around the same time in the area, but a lot of people around here are pretty slow on the uptake. Babysteps.

A detailed version of the story:
[dailymail.co.uk]

Details about the initiative:
[vipseenmag.com]