When I see an elephant die...

Something of which I was completely unaware: in November and December of 1941, there was an outbreak of circus elephants being poisoned, and threats being made against zoo elephants. It's not mentioned in the article, but Disney's "Dumbo" was released at the end of October that year, and was a huge hit. The first elephant poisonings took place on Nov 5th, 13 days after the film was released. I tend to wonder if that played some role in motivating the killer, and even if it didn't, there had to be some emotional association there, both for the murderer and the public.

I have to note too that Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey also suffered a fire to their animal tents in Cleveland, in August of 1942, which killed a number of elephants, along with others. That's generally thought to have been an accident (the circus had been set up close to the train tracks, and steam trains tended to shoot out embers, something I can vouch for, as I once had a burning bit land on me while riding a steam excursion train), although after the Hartford circus fire in 1944 (commonly held, although never proven, to have been arson), some people were inclined to re-examine the menagerie fire.

I've studied the Hartford fire and its alleged association with the Cleveland fire, as such things exert a grim fascination on me, yet I've never run across mention of the elephant poisonings. Now I'm interested...