EVERETT – When the circus pulled into Everett Station Wednesday, the elephants poked their trunks curiously out the train’s windows and doors.
To the crowd of hundreds waiting for an up-close animal encounter, the trunks appeared to be curling toward the threatening sky the same way a person would raise a palm to test for sprinkles of rain.
Ears flapping, the elephants lumbered off the train one by one to oohs, ahhs and applause.
“All the elephants are pretty cute,” said Garrett David, 10, who was standing with his mother, Kathy, on the train platform.
“We also saw goats, ponies, cows and pigs” get off the train, he said. “I think it’s pretty cool.”
It was the nearest the home-schooled student had ever been to an elephant, he said, which is exactly why his mother brought him to watch the Ringling Bros. and Barnum &Bailey Circus animals leave the train.
“People should be able to enjoy the animals,” she said, adding that she was glad the crowd was amiable and there were few protesters.
“It kind of takes away from it when there’s protesters,” she said. “I think there are safeguards in place to protect the animals.”
Parents and children, teenagers, workers and people waiting to catch buses and trains braved the rain to watch the elephants unload, huddle with their trainers, link trunks to tails and form a line.
Cameras clicked on both sides of Pacific Avenue as eight elephants, led by a police car, walked down the middle of the road several blocks to the Everett Events Center. The circus will perform there through Sunday.
A handful of protesters carried signs and videotaped the animals walking.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals volunteer Claudine Erlandson, carrying a sign that said “19 Dead Elephants and Counting,” walked at a brisk pace to keep up with the elephants.
“This is so sad,” she said.
After the elephants arrived at the arena, Erlandson stood outside the service entrance with her sign.
“These beautiful animals do not belong in a train,” she said. “I find it arrogant … humankind should know better.”
She and other local and regional animal rights protesters plan to demonstrate before and after each circus performance this week.
If Wednesday’s walk was any indication, the protesters and their message may not be enthusiastically embraced by circusgoers.
“People often say, ‘Get a life,’” Erlandson said. “Well, this is my life, and I choose to do this. It gets depressing. However, we have to keep on fighting the good fight.”
Circus publicist Tara Leiser said crowds at the animal walk vary from city to city, but added that she was impressed at the number of families who turned out to see the animals in Everett.
Once such family was Lynda Killingsworth and her daughter Olivia, 10, who carpooled with almost a dozen family and friends from Gold Bar and Sultan.
“It’s an experience you just don’t get to have anymore,” Killingsworth said. “This is not an event that happens everyplace. It’s exciting, especially for kids.”
Along with her friends, brothers Andrew and Daniel Wagner, ages 11 and 9, Olivia had plans to go back and research the history of circuses.
“It’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing nowadays,” Daniel said.
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@ heraldnet.com.
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