A car dealership in Oklahoma is battling animal abuse accusations and receiving death threats after it featured a pair of elephants during a circus-themed community event in nearly 100-degree heat. It’s not a good look.
In response to the accusations, Patriot Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram of Tulsa promised to donate $100 for every vehicle they sold in July to an elephant sanctuary, according to Automotive News. I know dealer margins are slim, but that isn’t very much money. After the store got over 600 emailed complaints in just four days, General Manager Brian Creed reached out to Carrie LeBlanc, the executive director of the animal advocacy group CompassionWorks International. She was the one who brought the elephant situation to light on social media.
Creed also spoke with ABC 8 Tulsa about what happened – denying any wrongdoing, but saying the dealership is trying to make things right.
“I can’t speak to anything before or after they were at my dealership, but when they were here, there was no abuse of any kind whatsoever that I saw,” said Creed. “I wanted to get out our side of the story. Not so much to make excuses for what happened because I don’t feel like there’s any kind of excuse, but to let people know the resolution.”
[…]
“We decided to collaborate together to raise some money for the elephants and we’re actually going to support a sanctuary in Tennessee that houses elephants that come out of the circus or come out of the entertainment industry,” said Creed.
Creed says he has received death threats from “multiple continents, multiple countries” over what happened with the elephants. However, he said the vast majority of the emails he received were respectful, and people just wanted the elephants to be put in better condition.
The elephants – named Betty and Janice – belong to the Carden International Circus in Missouri. Brett Carden, the owner of the circus, says those elephants are accustomed to the heat and they were well taken care of, with plenty of shade and water.
LeBlanc isn’t so sure, according to Auto News:
But LeBlanc disputed Carden’s contention that they had a pleasant stay in Patriot’s parking lot. “The elephants that they chose to bring to Tulsa are actually elephants that are regularly forced to perform at circuses,” she said. “They are both elderly. They have demonstrated health issues and a very large following of people who care about them.”
I think the main takeaway here is that circuses are evil and we should not be using beautiful creatures like elephants are our playthings. Leave them alone, man.
We’ve been talking a lot about the shitty things dealers have done lately. Sure, none of these issues rise to the level of potential animal abuse, but we’ve still got stuff like a dealer joyriding and destroying a $97,000 Chevy Camaro, a dealer who took back a man’s new car after retroactively denying his credit approval and a dealer that sold a customer’s Mustang without his permission.