It is likely now that our children and grandchildren will never see an Asian elephant, get close to one, see or feel one, be delighted by them. Like half of the species of animals in our world, they have begun their inexorable march towards oblivion and distinction.  They are leaving the circuses early.

They will, from now on, live on You Tube and people will never again see the love that existed between many of them and many people, or understand the magical and exhilarating things even the biggest animals in the world can do when they love people and live and work with them.

The elephants are gone,  dropping out of our sight and consciousness. And all in the name of their rights.  Given our history, does anyone really think we will save and protect them when we can’t even see them?

Several years ago, when I began writing about the New York Carriage Horses, I was inundated with messages and mail from people who thought I had lost my mind, who were outraged that I questioned the idea that work for carriage horses in New York is tantamout to torture and abuse. People threatened me, my animals, the farm, accused me of supporting animal abuse, called me lots of bad names and assured me I was going to Hell, or worse.

I’m glad I kept writing about the horses, they opened my eyes to the real threat facing animals in  our world: they are being taken from us, one species at a time, sometimes by real estate developers and human greed, sometimes by an animal liberation movement that does not believe animals should be owned by people, live with them, entertain them or work with them.

I don’t get much angry mail about the horses any longer, nobody is going to drive them out of New York City after all.

But I am not one of those celebrating the end of the circus elephants, reported today. It makes me sad.

Half the animal species of the world have vanished since 1980, the Asian elephants will soon be among them, joining many carriage horses, ponies in farmer’s markets and other animals that have been liberated from allegedly cruel and abusive humans.

Yesterday, I expressed some regret on Facebook that Ringling Bros was ending its elephant acts a year-and-a-half early. I feel the issue is more complex and difficult than many people who say they love animals believe it to be. Someone named Janet Smith was right there on Facebook as if she was waiting for me, urging me to go to Hell. Nancy Klein said shame on all the people who bought tickets to the circus, all of the elephants there were abused. These were the nice ones. Bruno McLaughlin was ashamed of me for supporting animal abuse, “do you know what people are saying about you, Jon?” Really, was it worse than the messages I was getting?

This, alas, is the way it is when the future of animals in America is discussed in public. If the animals are disappearing at horrific rates, so is the very idea of civil discussion about them.

(It puzzles me that the profile photos many of these angry messages us are of small dogs. Why, I wonder, would this be? Small dogs deserve better.)

In the animal rights world, there was much celebration. Wayne Pacelle, the CEO of the Humane Society, now a de facto sub-division of PETA, said Ringling Bros. decision to end its elephant acts early signaled that even “tough minded and hardened animal use companies now recognized that the world is changing and it had to adapt.” Pacelle did not mention the $25.2 million in settlements from a number of animal rights groups, including the Humane Society, in 2014 that ended a 14-year legal battle over allegations that Ringling Bros. was mistreating its elephants.

Those abuse charges were never proven or adjudicated to, and were vehemently denied by RIngling Bros. What was proven was that the animal rights groups were paying witnesses hundreds of thousands of dollars to testify that the elephants were being mistreated.

The future of elephants is a complex issue, as is the future of all animals. Here’s what I know and believe about it:

• Some elephants have been trained and treated roughly, especially some years ago,  some were abused. Many were not. Many dogs are abused, but no one is thinking (yet) to make owning them illegal. Animal rights theologians do not believe dogs or cats should be owned by people or used to entertain them. No cities or towns are banning them.
•  Asian elephants are domesticated animals. They have been working with human beings for thousands of years, often doing much harder work than the elephants in the circuses do.
• I have heard from, met  and spoken with a number of elephant handlers and trainers. Many of them love elephants dearly and would not dream of harming them. Many powerful and loving relationships between people and animals – now broken in ways elephants cannot understand or be prepared for – have developed over many years. It is far from clear the elephants will be safer, happy, healthier – or even alive – when their historic work with the circus ends. This is much the same feeling I got when I met with the carriage drivers in New York. I could not see them as abusive torturers of animals,and we now know they are not.
• Many people do not quite grasp that the animal rights movement is an animal liberation movement, not an animal rescue or welfare movement. It’s oft stated goal is to remove animals from people, work, and also from the entertainment, amusement or uplifting of people. To me, it is not a crime for animals to make humans smile, to enchant children, to lift people’s spirits, as they have for thousands of years, and to show the relationship and work that bring people people and animals together, sometimes in the most remarkable ways. Animals and people are at their best when they are together, not separated or kept apart.
• Ringling Bros. has never been convicted of the kinds of abuse that they have been accused of by animal rights organizations. Officials of the circus said they could not afford to keep fighting the legal struggles across the country that have resulted from massive and expensive lobbying efforts by well-funded animal rights organizations. They have never admitted to abusing the elephants, nor have they been convicted of doing so. This only matters to people who believe in the law, or in facts. There is much legitimate debate and discussion about how to train and care for them.
• Many animal lovers were celebrating the demise of the circus elephants, but few know or can say what will become of the elephants now. Eleven Ringling Bros. elephants are going to the circus’s animal preserve in Florida. It will cost $65,000 a year to care for each one of them. No one know where the score of elephants from other circuses are going – they have far fewer resources than Ringling Bros.  And Ringling Bros. is under no legal obligation to care for the animals for the rest of their lives. There is not a  market for unemployed elephants, there is little doubt that many of these amazing animals – most have lived and worked with people and around people their whole lives – will perish. No one knows who would care for them or pay for them, or why. I would dearly love to see animal rights groups lobby for a law that stipulates that anyone who seeks to remove an animal from work or the every day live of humans must specify where they are going and who will pay for their care.

Sadly, many animals have paid for their lives as a result of our quite shallow and transient idea of morality and animal rights. Where, exactly, do all of these righteous people believe these horses, ponies, elephants, movie animals are going to go when they are all banned and driven away from people? We all know where they go. More than 160,000 horses go to slaughter in Canada and Mexico, most die by having nails driven into their heads.

The choice for the elephants is not between the circuses and the wild, in nature. There is no wild for these elephants to return to, we have destroyed their world. The choice for them is most likely between the circuses and death.

Was it really impossible, I wonder, for us to give the elephants better lives, more space, different training, less travel and still keep them in our world? Is it really true that is criminal for animals to entertain people and lift our weary spirits? Must they all be banished and driven from the world because some – a completely unknown number – have been mistreated?

I believe the people celebrating the end of the elephants in circus might think harder about their joy. I never celebrate the removal of animals from our world.

For animal lovers, I think the celebration will be short lived.  It is, for sure, a phyrric victory when it comes to the elephants or their future. I am sorry for the future generations of people and children who will never see an elephant, touch one or know one. They will never see how an amazing and enormous animal can love a human being and do extraordinary things with them. Connection to humans is their best path to survival, their habitats no longer exist. They have never been more vulnerable.

There are plenty of precedents if you are wondering what might happen to the elephants. Just ask the World Wildilfe Fund.

I am not afraid of angry messages from sometimes hateful and cruel people. I am not afraid of disagreement or other points of view. I do not tell other people what to think or do, and I do not argue my beliefs with enraged mobs on Facebook. When I get messages like that, I know what I have to do. Write about how I feel. That is what writers do.

To me, our world becomes grimmer, angrier, more rigid and cold without the carriage horses and elephants and ponies. This is the Puritans way of resolving issues – all black, all white, good versus evil. God versus the devil. Burn the witches or ban them.

Not so simple for me. Some more of the magic will leave our world with the elephants. I respect all of those countless people over time who loved to see the elephants and know them. They were not all abusers and fools. It is not the circuses that are archaic, it is the animal movement that has failed to see the real threat facing animals, and is removing them from our every day lives rather than helping us find safe and humane ways to keep them with us.

That is not, for me, a reason to celebrate.