We all occasionally dream of running off to join the circus. Well, Larry Carden didn't have to dream. He was born into one! Carden took some time from his busy schedule traveling with the George Carden Circus, International (started by his father) to answer our questions about being an elephant trainer.
Name: Larry Carden
Age: 29
Job title: Elephant Trainer
What do you do?
My father owns 10 elephants. I work with all of them but when I'm on the road I work with four. I grew up around elephants and have been training them for 12 years -- as did my father before me and his father before him.
What is it like to work with elephants?
Taking care of an elephant is a 24-hour job. They are always eating and pooping, so I am always on one end or the other. They also get washed with soap and water every day, up to three times a day. Along with that, if they aren't performing I train them every day. They are just like people with their personalities and they have different moods depending on the day.
What's the best thing about your job?
I get to see the U.S and perform for thousands of people a day, Best of all, I get to spend my time with my best friends the elephants Betty, Cindy, Vicky and Bo.
Do you have any advice to aspiring elephant trainers?
To someone who wants to train elephants: Start learning all you can about them and try to get around them. The more time you spend with them, the more they get to know you. All elephant trainers start at the back and work their way to the front.
See more photos of Larry and the George Carden Circus.
Name: Larry Carden
Age: 29
Job title: Elephant Trainer
What do you do?
My father owns 10 elephants. I work with all of them but when I'm on the road I work with four. I grew up around elephants and have been training them for 12 years -- as did my father before me and his father before him.
What is it like to work with elephants?
Taking care of an elephant is a 24-hour job. They are always eating and pooping, so I am always on one end or the other. They also get washed with soap and water every day, up to three times a day. Along with that, if they aren't performing I train them every day. They are just like people with their personalities and they have different moods depending on the day.
What's the best thing about your job?
I get to see the U.S and perform for thousands of people a day, Best of all, I get to spend my time with my best friends the elephants Betty, Cindy, Vicky and Bo.
Do you have any advice to aspiring elephant trainers?
To someone who wants to train elephants: Start learning all you can about them and try to get around them. The more time you spend with them, the more they get to know you. All elephant trainers start at the back and work their way to the front.
See more photos of Larry and the George Carden Circus.
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there still wild animals, whats stopping them from killing you?
as to the comment the reader before me made...........
what's stopping the elephants from killing him??????????
it's called daily torture, bull hooks, VERY tight and heavy chains that puncture into their legs.....i could go on.
i too was a circus performer and elephant rider with ringling bros. circus and unless you've heard an elephant scream, cry, hang their heads in resolution, you have no idea.
any elephant, no matter if the handlers care for them or not, cannot function in captivity.
they need to walk, A LOT, in order to digest their food properly, to keep painful, life threatening, arthritis, at bay, and most will die from a genetic form of herpes of their hearts.
all are slow and painful ways to die.
oh, and travelling? that is a big NO.......they are stuffed into train cars, semi's, etc... moving from climate changes and trying to stay upright from their modes of transport.
i've spent over half my life loving, studying, and trying to help the dwindling population of the asian/indian elephants....if no-one stands up for them....they will be gone from this planet very soon.
ask these "trainers" why they only use female asian elephants.....you will be hardpressed to see an african or male elephant in any circus.
why is that...see the reader's comments above me.
PLEASE, do not take yourselves or a child to any circus....as long as ignorance prevails.....these animals will be DYING for your moment of fun.
is it worth it?
blessings and prayers.....
jodey eliseo
I agree totally with you. That guy should not be bragging, they torture these beautiful animals just as you said, with bull hooks, and it isn't a pretty sight. These poor elephants and such magnificant animals and are tortured for our pleasure, I for one do not support ony circus' as they all mistreat ALL of the animals, they do not care for them, (just like moron Michael Vick) the just use, abuse and torture for $$$$$$, Hopefully the elephants will step on the people who torture them, then maybe they will euthanize the elephant and they will be out of misery and pain....
THAT was EXCELLENT.........I commend you YOU are right!!!!!!!!
i agree 100% j. circuses should be banned from using ANY wild animals. I won't go to any circus ever because i can't stand to see the animals suffering
To go along with our fellow bloggers, thank you for your insight. It truly is a disgusting form of entertainment.
If you were so concerned about the elephants when you were a performer, why then didn't you do something about it? Call animal services, call the newspaper, call the local tv station. Do something to make a big stink about it. Take pictures of the abuse and get them published. Create a business to put a stop to elephants in a circus, or anywhere else except the wild. Petition congress. Get your local representative on your side. But no, you were an elephant rider by your own admission so what kept your mouth shut - the money or the thrill of riding an elephant? No, you didn't do anything except now, years later, write a protest after an article about a man who loves his elephants. Well how effective are you as a human being? If you want to stop circuses from using elephants, then get off your dead butt and do something more than write a self rightous entry after an article is published on the internet.
DARN RIGHT~!! So-called 'humans' profiting from the MISERY of animals!! I can't use the language I would like, or scream loudly enough about this. Elephants and other large animals in particular.
Circuses have creeped me out since I was a CHILD...shame on all of you that profit from animals in this way.
Everyone needs to read about/help with donations to, the ELEPHANT SACTUARY IN TENNESSEE.
This man should be ashamed of himself. Life on the road for a circus elephant is cruel and barbaric. This form of entertainment is a thing of the past. It is time to stop profiting off the suffering of endangered species. Get a real job!
I do not support Circus' I agree these beautiful should live in freedom, you can tell they are not happy, that is why they rock back and forth and develope ticks because they do not know what to do with themselves. Cruelty by humans.
Also support the anti tether laws for dogs!
Sounds to me like this guy really does love his elephants - and wouldn't it make sense to take really good care of them since he works with them every day and his living depends on it? Isn't the torture charge a little hysterical? Do you worry that much about what the CIA does with human beings?
CIA...yeah I heard they just abuse innocent people like terrorists for no reason. Poor things. COME ON that has nothing to do with that at all.
Hysterical?......ack!
Once again, you can "love" something to death.
Even if he did take good care of them, they do not do well chained and travelling to different climates....doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that.
This guy uses a bull hook and, contrary to popular belief....an elephant can feel a fly land on them so, before someone brings it up,....NO their skin is not w/o nerves.
As to the CIA, funny you should bring them up.....I testified at a trial in Fairfax VA 3 years ago b/c Ken Feld had hired an ex CIA member to break into a few different animal agencies and destroy all files on the ringling animals......true, look it up.
He was fined for animal abuse but, once again, he walked away.
Or, ask Oliver North about CIA practices....you can find him on the FOX channel instead of serving his time but....that's another story.
No, these people do not take good care of their animals, if one gets sick...they pawn her off on a willing zoo.
There are always more to take their place.
Money and animals rarely mix with a good outcome to all.
So, quit with your theories as to how these animals are treated and find out for yourself or....be smart enough not to comment on what you "guess" and do not really know.
Ignorance drives me nuts!
Blessings, Jodey Eliseo
One more thing and this may sound harsh but............
I see no shortage of people on this planet anytime soon. the asian elephants, however, are down to about 40,000 and b/c they only, usually, give birth between the ages of mid 20's to early 30's, they are pregnant for almost 2 years and nurse dor another fer years....they cannot birth enough to keep up with their destruction, either by cruelty or loss of habitat.
They are of average human intelligence (which makes them smarter than most people walking this earth), their mri's show that their lobes of emotion to be higher than that of humans and the old cliche, "an elephant never forgets" is very true....their memories are off the charts which to me means they are more "human", and more humane, than humans!
Anyone, imo, who only cares for their own kind is doing themselves and this planet an injustice....if we cannot care and learn to love all creatures....we will end up destroying ourselves and this planet.
Oh, WAIT,.....that is EXACTLY what "we're" doing.
Figure it out people.....please.
I know these elephants personally both here in the U.S., where they do NOT belong, as well as all of them in refuges and in the wild......they are the most amazing beings and it has been a blessing and a curse to know what i know.
Blessings, Jodey Eliseo
I am sorry to hear all the things you are telling us about how these beautiful animals are being treated, but I am glad that you are. Many animals are abused because they can be. Thank you for telling what you know.
I am so disapointed in "paw nation" for printing this. For even giving an Elephant trainer/circus owner the time of day!! Why not talk about the bull hooks? or Chains? Or the torture these beautiful animals endure for our entertainment? I do not now or have I in the past gone to a circus that keeps animals. Elephants should not be doing tricks for our entertainment!
EXACTLY what I thought when I saw this. Shame on them...
I DO NOT !!!!! SUPPORT THE CIRCUS, HORSE RACING, THE ZOO, GREYHOUND RACES, BULL FIGHTING,
AND I LOVE TO SEE THE A$$H*LES GET GORGED BY THE BULLS THAT THEY SO HAPPILY >>> DISRESPECT !!!
HUMANS TRULY ARE THE ANIMALS HERE.
Am glad I am in the position to give insight.
I lived it for 3 years and did what I could.
As to my medication hmmm....wouldn't turn down a bowl of weed but am not part of this "pill nation".
On a side not, I eat meat, wear leather, and believe more in a quality of life for all creatures while they are alive.
Yes, my name is plastered all over Peta's site b/c I will speak and/or testify if they ask but we do not see eye to eye on how to do things.
You, "Angiebaby" sound so selfish and bitter....ack.
I feel sorry for you.
You may love the circus....I did until I knew what was what. I left a major ballet company for that job just b/c I wanted to be around the animals.
These elephants are so endangered that most experts agree that there really is no way to save this species in the long run.
I also know that they have more intelligence and heart than you do....am so sorry you live a life that sounds so cold, entitled, and just plan ignorance.
I will educate people who have the brains to understand and send my blessings out to those like you.
Why don't you take your pills and let us kinder souls alone.
Peace, Jodey
please forgive my typing errors.....am good at a lot of things but typing isn't one of them.