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Books

Why you shouldn't keep elephants

Hard to own, harder to shoot. Zooming in on the life of Jumbo, John Sutherland shows us the plight of captive animals — and of humans

8 February 2014

9:00 AM

8 February 2014

9:00 AM

Jumbo John Sutherland

Aurum Press, pp.292, £14.99, ISBN: 9781781212445

On 15 September 1885, the world’s most famous elephant, Jumbo, was killed by a train. Jumbo, the star attraction at P.T. Barnum’s travelling circus, was crossing the track at a station in Ontario, Canada. His handler, Matthew Scott, saw the danger. But ‘the elephant, fatally confused, trumpeted wildly and ran towards the oncoming train’.

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