• Me finding out it’s more than just Topsy

    🎶they’ll say aw, Topsy at my autopsy🎶

    I was really hoping to find this here

  • Why did it happen often enough that there's an entire wikipedia page for them.

    Even weirder, the see also tab links to an article about animal trials. Apparently in mediaeval times, they semi regularly arrested and prosecuted... Animals? But even stranger, they also prosecuted insects and pests too. They put flies and leeches up to trial, and presumably executed at least some of them. Such a weird concept, I don't understand any of this

    But don't worry! Because before they sent them to court, they ordered the church to perform an exorcism and bathe them in holy water

    The worst part is this wasn't the middle ages, it was 100 years ago

  • After this ima read about the elephant stomping that guy to death after breaking his legs earlier in the day, just for revenge

  • Topsy, Coney Island, New York, 1903 - owners planned a public hanging as a publicity stunt. ASPCA stepped in and she was euthanized instead via poisoning, electrocution and strangulation.

    she was euthanized instead via poisoning, electrocution and strangulation.

    People are horrible.

  • Aww Topsy

    Welp, now I’ve got that song stuck in my head.

  • We are fucking monsters

  • The electrocution was not fast as they said it was

  • Hey OP, wanna mark this nsfw so I don’t have to see a picture of some yanks executing an elephant when I’m just scrolling through? Thanks.

    If it’s any consolation I am like 99% sure that’s a fake photo lol

  • You should read the play, “The Elephant’s Graveyard” by George Brant about the execution of Mary in Tn. It’s told from the perspective of both the townspeople and the circus workers. It’s heartbreaking and beautiful and really imagines the emotional toll of what happened on everyone who witnessed it. It is one of my favorite plays and I get emotional every time I see it or read it.

  • I miss visiting this sub every night before bed 🥹

  • I recognized that picture of Mary because hers was carried out not far from where I was born. Locals continue to try to justify it because she killed a lot of people, but she killed people because she was horribly mistreated all her life. And it's not like there aren't plenty of wide open spaces where she could have been sent to spend the rest of her days.

  • That’s fucked.

  • I wish this had been marked NSFW and blurred. I love this sub but images of animal torture is really not cool

  • This is my favourite part of the article

    Topsy, Coney Island, New York, 1903 - owners planned a public hanging as a publicity stunt. ASPCA stepped in and she was euthanized instead via poisoning, electrocution and strangulation.[14]

    I don’t find it amusing at all tbh. If you visit Topsy’s wikipedia page, they have footage of it and it’s incredibly depressing.

    I'm here because I enjoy reading creepy wikipedia articles, that was the creepiest part for me. What gives.

    I guess maybe the tone of your post came across as you genuinely enjoying the torture of an animal. I personally interpreted it as as you highlighting the irony of ASPCA stepping in and the end result being far worse than her original fate. 

    Yeah, that was my intent

    Edit: the ASPCA thing dumbasses

  • I have been familiar with this story for a long time, and it breaks my heart so deeply. I think about Mary the elephant pretty often. This image says so much about the worst aspects of humanity, and its capacity for horrendous acts of thoughtless cruelty.

    “What will we do about the tortured circus animal who finally snapped from all the abuse and trampled people in a fit of rage? We’ll hang her from a crane, that’ll show her…” -The fine people of early 20th century Chicago.

  • Elephant Execution is a rad band name, though.

  • I’m only now looking at that photo and realizing that it’s bullshit lmao like that’s not a real picture

  • Okay obviously this is awful, but also I can not stop laughing

    How is it funny?

    Some people are warped.

    Just the absurdity of it. Sorry I’m legitimately not trying to be edgy or anything. The idea of executing an elephant for committing a crime like it has a sense of morality is just nuts, but it’s also somehow not surprising this was a thing in America

    Elephants do have a sense of morality. They're as smart/smarter than humans.

    People torture and torment animals. I remember watching teens burn the legs off frogs with a lighter in the park as a kid. I do find it "absurd" but definitely not in a haha Tim & Eric kind of way.