Leslie Griffith, a reporter based in San Fancisco, is making some weighty claims about Washington area businessman Kenneth Feld and the possibility that his circus is secretly spreading tuberculosis via infected elephants:
If you have not seen the movie Idiocracy, you should. The dumbing down of the masses is a problem in this country and it’s the only real way to keep Americans etherized. We all know who benefits from that — monarchs and dictators. But why isn’t the press helping to wake us up? Here’s a story that might help you understand.
I was in my kitchen listening to the radio when the headline made me drop both my mouth and the pre-packaged meal in my hand: “The World Health Organization said today there is concern that a new form of drug resistant tuberculosis is spreading across the country and the world.”
As a journalist who worked for a large media corporation, I had tried to warn people of this possibility for the previous two years. I knew TB positive and TB infected elephants were one reason there was a drug resistant strain of TB. I also knew why the story was kept a secret, and the reporter (me) had been silenced. The corporation potentially spreading the tuberculosis is considered “an American Institution.” That corporation, Feld Inc., owns Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus and at least 25 other corporations, including part ownership of Disney on Ice.
As far back as 1993, an endangered Asian elephant owned by Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the same kind of tuberculosis humans contract. Since tuberculosis is unheard of in the wild, humans had to give the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M-TB) to the elephant. Five years later, Ringling’s own documents indicate the herd was devastated by M-tuberculosis. All had been exposed, so all had to be treated. Ringling did not act swiftly according to USDA documents. I know of at least 30 of these exotic creatures who were diagnosed with tuberculosis after their deaths — even after years of treatment. Here stands the elephant in the room. It’s impossible to tell if Asian elephants have TB until they die and the necropsy is done. There is no definitive test and of course X-raying the lungs is not possible. These are animals weighing up to ten thousand pounds!
All the evidence indicates that for the last 14 years TB positive and TB infected elephants have been traveling the country and performing in closed arenas full of little kids holding cotton candy and squealing with delight. People with compromised immune systems and the elderly are circus patrons. It’s a family tradition in some homes to go to the circus when it’s in town. Read more…
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