MAN DRESSES AS ELEPHANT AFTER SEEING FILM
A Withering student went to unusual lengths last week to protest man’s inhumanity to elephants.
For it was after seeing the documentary Jumbo Size Me that Kieran Blofeld decided to spend seven days as a pachyderm.
“It seemed the obvious thing to do,” said 21-year-old Kieran, who lives in Saltmarsh Close.
“I was particularly appalled at the practice of using elephants as paperweights.”
“It seems that, in certain countries, elephants are routinely employed to hold down piles of loose paper. They are forced to balance on table tops and remain completely still for long periods of time.
“After years of being treated like this, an elephant becomes institutionalised. Returned to the wild, it panics and runs around trying to find a desk to climb onto.
“Failure to do so causes the animal to become distraught and incapable of forming meaningful relationships with other elephants.
Eventually it dies a sad and lonely death.”
To make his point, Kieran kitted himself out in a grey latex body suit and a full-head mask, both of which he constructed at college.
He also hung a sign around his neck which read: ‘How would you like to have me on your desktop?’
“I hoped that this would do something to raise public awareness,” added Kieran.
Kieran was surprised to find that, in general, an elephant strolling around Froghill was greeted with little curiosity. Apart from giving him a second glance and reading his sign, most people would just pass by without comment.
“The only exception was one night in the pub, when a drunken man offered to punch me in the trunk,” said Kieran.
“He had to be pulled off by a friend and taken outside.
“It turned out that his wife had run off with an elephant trainer from Zeferelli’s Circus, so I guess I can understand his feelings.”
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