Residents River of Crime Electrocution of Topsy

Topsy had a temper. She killed three men in three years, the last a drunk trainer who had fed her a lit cigarette. Topsy had to go. But how? The authorities fed her carrots laced with cyanide. She wolfed them down without effect. Topsy was one tough elephant. Although some say she refused to eat the poisoned carrots.

Which scenario is more probable?

Soundtrack is a snippet from River of Crime by The Residents.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Topsy
• Residents
• Coney
• Edison
• Electrocution

[krazyj2010]

Actually I thought that she WOULDN'T eat the carrots because she smelled the poison? That's what my teacher told me... The last trainer was an idiot.. The elephant didn't deserve to be killed. She was being abused they're not domesticated and never will be

[Steveco]

@krazyj2010 Well they fact that she DID eat the carrots and wasn't poisoned meant that to her they weren't poisonous.

[alanlaing]

I cant believe Im watching an argument about something that happened over 100 years ago and talking as if Edison should be held accountable for his crimes.....folks it's ok...he's dead, has been for a while...

[Steveco]

You're right of course.

Let's give William The Conquerer what's coming to him too.

[dcddjc]

Thomas Edison BURN IN HELL FOR ALL TIMES!

I feel so sorry for this helpless Elephant, I hope this was also her last thoughts (quotation from gattaca):

For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess I'm suddenly having a hard time leaving it. Of course, they say every atom in our bodies was once part of a star. Maybe I'm not leaving... maybe I'm going home.

RIP Topsy

[Steveco]

The elephant wasn't exactly hapless. It killed 3 people (it was provoked). And was sentenced not by Edison but by the fairground owners. Edison simply filmed it and gave technical assistance. The fairground burnt down some years later.

[msspurlock]

Edison had heard of the Missouri fiasco, where ignorant townsfolk finally put down a pitiful "rogue elephant" after three days of torture and a botched hanging. It was a surprisingly common occurrence in the days when an animal killing a human was an automatic death sentence. The animal was going to be killed anyway. He wanted it to be a bit more humane. Of course, he also wanted to sway the whole AC versus DC debate, but he was not a monster as Stalinists would have you believe.

[MayaInka2012]

Well, would you like to live in a cage with footcuffs and go on stage after beaten up for hours every day???!

Circus with animals should be forbidden because animals belong into the wild!!! got it?!!!!!

[atomikshopincart]

@DarthDemaric he wasn't doing this to be an ass, the elephant was going to be executed, and the other option was the often-botched elephant hanging. Killing and elephant is never pretty, and in a perfect word there would be no perceived need to, but truly cruel people become elephant trainers. Edison was just trying something new, in the hopes that it would work.

[atomikshopincart]

@houseofturds shooting an elephant often just left the elephant wounded. Elephants are very large and hard to kill with bullets. The .375 is the minimum effective gun for killing elephants, and it wasn't around for another 9 years. Not really an expert on the history of guns, but I don't think there were any effective one-shot humane methods of elephant execution back then.

[atomikshopincart]

@dcddjc the other option they normally gave elephants who became killers was hanging. Edison believed that this was a less painful way to die, and it might be, but an elephant hanging may actually be much more traumatic and gruesome if you think about it. Mary the Elephant, who was also executed for killing trainers was hanged, but the chain snapped and broke her hips. She was killed the 2nd time. Edison is not really the bad guy here, the trainers were.

[dcddjc]

@houseofturds I know you are right, but somehow we are killing abusing aso. a paybag to the humans is not false.

[houseofturds]

@dcddjc he did killed 3 people .. But they probably should have shooted it in stead of this cruel electrocution.

[DarthDemaric]

When I first saw this on Modern Marvels "death devices", I was very upset by this. It still is horrible. I lost any respect I had for Edison. Yeah, he was a great inventor, but also a cruel hateful man. He would have to be to do this.

[staciii18]

You see what people with power do to vulnerable creatures? Topsy was aggressive for a reason, but i guess no one back then realized it was their own disgusting behavior that caused it in the first place. Fuck edison, Tesla was the real genius.