update on Aug 10, 04:04 pm ist
You must have heard of hanging humans for some heinous crime, but have you ever heard that an elephant has been hanged. Yes, it sounds very strange to hear, but something similar happened in America 104 years ago today. In today's time, even if we call such an incident cruelty to animals, but at that time a large number of people in America supported the hanging of the elephant. This horrifying or rather cruel incident is on September 13, 1916, when an elephant named Mary was hanged among more than two thousand people in the US state of Tennessee. The reason behind this was very strange, knowing about which you will also be surprised. Actually, a man named Charlie Spark used to run a circus named 'Sparks World Famous Show' in Tennessee. There were many animals in that circus, including an Asian elephant named Mary.
Mary, weighing about five tons, was the main attraction of that circus. It is said that one day Mary's mahout left the circus for some reason, after which another mahout was hurriedly replaced in her place. Now since the new mahout did not know much about Mary the elephant and neither did Mary spend much time with that mahout, the mahout was finding it difficult to control Mary.
Meanwhile, one day a parade was organized in the city for the promotion of the circus, in which all the animals including Mary and all the circus artists participated. A parade was taken out in the heart of the city. During this, on the way, Mary saw something to eat, for which she started moving fast
Now the new mahout tried hard to stop Mary, but she did not stop. During this, the mahout hit him with a spear behind his ear, causing the elephant to shudder and slam him down in anger and put his heavy foot on him, killing the mahout.Seeing this incident, people started running here and there. At the same time, some people started a ruckus raising slogans of killing the elephant. Though the matter was settled at that time, the incident was featured prominently in the next day's newspapers, after which the incident spread rapidly throughout the city.
The townspeople began to demand the owner of the circus, Charlie Spark, to put Mary (the elephant) to death. At the same time, he also threatened that if this did not happen then he would never allow a circus in the city again. Many people talked about killing the elephant in many ways. If someone asked to be crushed by a train, then someone told to kill the elephant by giving it current.
Eventually Charlie Spark succumbs to the insistence of the people and decides to put Mary (Elephant) to death. For this, he ordered a crane weighing 100 tons and on 13 September 1916, with the help of a crane, the elephant was hanged among thousands of people. This incident is considered the most cruel example of humanity towards animals in history.