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ASR attends controversial circus and is labelled animal cruelty advocate

posted 11 years ago by ParanoidAndroid97
9 replies | jump to latest

Just when it looked like this IMDb page was growing dull, a new controversy has surfaced, as if to purposefully pique our wavering interests. Here's a summary: Robb recently attended some novelty circus performance -put on by notorious animal-rights violators Ringling bros.- and posed in a pretentious and impassive fashion before an elephant that looked like it had been recently acquainted with a bullwhip. As an animal lover I found this rather discouraging (as if the fact that such diabolical acts of cruelty are still perfectly legal did not shock me enough), though I daresay her actions were merely ignorant rather than malicious, and were by no means a sign of contempt or disparagement towards animals and their 'rights'.
In any case, her Facebook is flooded presently with resentful comments regarding her equanimity towards elephants' mistreatment, both from fans and from eclectic social media enthusiasts who I guess just randomly showed up and decided to make their anger known.

One vehement passer-by wrote:

'You should be ashamed to make publicity by torturing animals. Look at their eyes and you'll see that for them is no joy (sic, horribly structured). Horrible person!'

Another comment of interest came from a poorly-educated American, who said derisively:

'I have to be honest, I have no idea who you are (then how, pray, did you stumble upon this? Ed.), I'm guessing your (sic) a celebrity or such. I saw this photo and I had to say what makes you think this is right? This poor elephant like so many of the other animals in this circus are treated terribly and with intense cruelty. How is this entertainment? It is vile. If you think different your (sic. Really?) stupid! Money doesn't buy you brains obviously (well done). Apologise to the animals for glorifying this torment.'

This chap should watch Jurassic Park 3. Some of the worst things imaginable are done with the best intentions, remember. Anyhow, his plea read as follows:

'If you really are fans (you) will understand that (she did it) with good intention(s).'

A girl named Stephanie invents/discovers a new form of blindness, misses an apostrophe and reminds us of a dim and distant time period in which we no longer live:

'Looking at that Elephant slave, if you people cannot see the pain in her eyes, you are emotionally blind! They are not here for humans(') entertainment, this is NOT the 19th century!!!'

One vociferous man was adamant that magic was the answer:

'FOR YOUR SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL PROBLEMS,SUCH AS ,BAD HABBIT (sic) REMOVAL SPELL ,BUSINESSS (a snake wrote that bit) BREAKTHROUH SPELL ,SPELL TO BREAK RELATIONSHIP WITH SPIRITUAL HUSBAND ,SECRET INITIATION ,SPELL TO HAVE PREGNANT ,MISCARRIAGE SPELL ,LOW SPERM COUNT SPELL ,LOVE SPELL ,ACCIDENT PROTECTION SPELL ,SPELL TO HAVE GOOD JOB ,PROMOTION SPELL,call dr albert +2348063223352 +2347088552577'

The 'low sperm-count spell' in particular seemed to leap from the page.

One woman, sporting the Mona Lisa as her profile image, gave a worryingly accurate account of the poor elephant's treatment:

'The elephant was beaten, poked with a bullhook, shocked with a taser, confined, shackled and chained.'

One man decided to show his support for a year-old Samsung product, whilst managing to portray the never-before-seen wink/despondency combo that was surely written plainly across his face as his fingertips graced the keyboard. He also appears to be laughing, providing an extraordinary insight into quite how many emotions we can feel at once. He 'stated':

'Haaaa... S2 ;('

As if determined not to let the record pass them by, someone else attempted the laugh-weep combination, this time adding words in a ploy to procure more adulation and praise. Marks, however, were lost due to a botched use of phonetics and an unnecessary use of profanity. Subject A, therefore, was awarded the Gold. Just for the sake of interest, here is Subject B's entry:

'Taha :,( *beep* myyy lifeeeee'

Meanwhile, an idiot decided to give us his two cents by writing a mistake-ridden comment that appears entirely unrelated to the issue at hand. He declared:

'Got (sic, assume 'God') gave us circus animals (sic, requires a hyphen, a semi-colon or any other appropriate piece of punctuation) they have bin (sic, presumably 'been') around before Jesus .'

After I laughed at that, I observed that a certain passer-by, Kim Jordan, had referred to Robb and her soul as 'ugly'. Said individual was swiftly set upon by doubly vengeful fans, one of whom uttered the following:

'U Wat ('you what', I presume), Kim Jordan? Your (sic, for God's sake...) the ugly b*tch'

Another fan was a little more level-headed, and, dare I say it, somewhat more intelligent:

'@Kim Jordan You should be open minded Kim! She and the elephant are both beautiful, she didn't know that the animals were tortured. You need to leave her alone!'

Several self-righteous fans took in the photo and were incapable of supporting Robb further:

'My daughter used to be a fan of yours, she will never ever be allowed to support anything you do now.'
'Our family fell in love with your acting in Soul Surfer but I can not support you so long as you support this.'

The former comment displays a staggering level of parental autocracy, while the second makes Soul Surfer sound enchanting, but regardless the prevailing agony in what they perceive as betrayal is made obvious through their regretful testimonies.

An ostensibly foreign bloke seemed totally discombobulated as he stressed, with no obvious reference to a particular incident:

'What?'

Another foreigner, either illiterate or determined to abstain from reading Robb's description of the photo (it says 'at Ringling Bros. last night') wondered:

'Where were you?'

There were, of course, the sycophants, who collectively had little of value to offer beyond poorly-structured declarations of infatuation, many of which were accompanied by tenuous Valentine hearts or multiple crosses.

Finally, one ravenously hungry reader found it necessary to declare his penchant for a certain domesticated bird, presumably in its edible form:

'TURKEY ♥'

So, are you an animal lover or related activist that cannot believe the ignorance shown by AnnaSophia Robb in attending this performance?
Are you a fan of the actress, determined to express your love for your kindred spirit whilst furiously threatening to tear her haters apart?
Do you have an affinity for amateur tabloid journalism?
Do you intend to boycott circuses?
Do you own a 'Spork'?
Feel free to express your opinions on any or all of these questions in the comments section below.

And no, I have not been hacked, this is Holden good and proper.

[–] n/a

This message has been deleted by the poster

[–] Odie33 11 years ago

Foremost, I did notice comments shortly after Robb posted the photo, but chose not to continue following the discussion as I knew it would most likely be a stack of stupidity. However, to you on the thoroughness.

Her actions were merely ignorant rather than malicious
I don't know how much, if anything, AnnaSophia's aware of the group's past actions, although, apparently, she observed and was informed that the treatment was not abusive.

http://youtu.be/lVnlPttVvL0

http://youtu.be/wjQZhG0ywvQ

Still a matter of ignorance, especially being a proclaimed animal rights activist? Possibly.

In addition, as I was also assuming, ASR's intention was clearly to enjoy some out of the ordinary entertainment, i.e., she admits to never attending a full blow "official" circus before.

Ultimately, (I feel) it's unfair to lash out at AnnaSophia for her action. If anything, politely express a discontent regarding the group's history and concerns despite any current proclamation otherwise.

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[–] ParanoidAndroid97 11 years ago

This particular circus has a history of deception and corruption, sadly, and their tendency to prevaricate has landed them in no small amount of legal trouble since an elephant died with the circus in 1998. Therefore, it's certainly likely that Robb was lied to by a representative of the circus and was told that there was a 'conservation programme' protecting the elephants- intelligent animals whose capacity to feel emotion is unrivalled by any other species of wild animal we tame or train, thus increasing the melancholy or will for vengeance we feel upon seeing them be beaten or abused- when in fact there is no such thing keeping them from being whipped into submission. Her insistence that she is a devout supporter of animal rights suggests that she did not wilfully attend a performance that hid tortured beasts beneath extravagant costumes and uncomfortable tricks, which at least detracts from the culpability she has accumulated after attending the performance. That said, coming upon a video displaying the treatment of the elephants at the circus is an incredibly facile task (type it in the search bar and voila), and it seems strangely credulous of her to just assume that what she was told by the circus' reps (I myself never visit circuses as I have an immobilising fear of clowns, so I cannot speak from experience here) was completely true.
Something that's important to remember about child actors (or adults who've been under Hollywood's wing from a young age) is that they can become trapped in a bubble and as such are naturally ignorant of many of the egregious goings-on that they were purposefully kept away from as Hollywood starlets, like mice raised to avoid cats rather than confront them. Her lack of exposure to corruption (though some argue Hollywood itself is the apotheosis of this crime's perpetration) would naturally make her less prone to wariness or suspicion, making for a rather sad scenario whereby she stumbles imprudently into a cesspit of cruelty just because she never considered inquiring further.

If God gives you lemons, make lemonade. If given melons, return them and tell God he needs glasses

[–] Odie33 11 years ago

Something that's important to remember about child actors (or adults who've been under Hollywood's wing from a young age) is that they can become trapped in a bubble and as such are naturally ignorant of many of the egregious goings-on that they were purposefully kept away from as Hollywood starlets, like mice raised to avoid cats rather than confront them. Her lack of exposure to corruption (though some argue Hollywood itself is the apotheosis of this crime's perpetration) would naturally make her less prone to wariness or suspicion, making for a rather sad scenario whereby she stumbles imprudently into a cesspit of cruelty just because she never considered inquiring further.
Most likely true. However, I don't blame AnnaSophia (entirely) for that. Disappointing, although, I'm (always) torn with the situation... I feel it's great that someone doesn't need to endure, even just observe, such hardship, yet I agree how seeing the darker side of things is beneficial in some ways.

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[–] nedave99 11 years ago

I think you are all over analyzing all this. AnnaSophia is certainly no advocate of animal cruelty; on the contrary she is a great supporter of the environment and animal causes, her fight for the stop of dolphin slaughter for example is well known. If Ringling Bros is indeed guilty of the animal cruelty charges laid before them then we should just quietly and carefully alert her to it rather than jump to conclusions and accuse her of being in collusion with them.

And we should not assume that because she has attained some celebrity status that it automatically entails that she lives in some sort of "bubble" as described and that she must be unaware of such things in this world that the rest of us are supposed to know. Let us not forget that she attended a large urban public high school for four years, certainly an ideal dissemination point for all of the same sorts of data, both fact and fiction, that we ourselves have been exposed to, nothing was ever shielded from her eyes. And living in New York City for the past year would certainly be a wake up call to her for massive exposure of world events and issues. Lets give her the benefit of the doubt and simply say that she made an easy error of judgement.

[–] Odie33 11 years ago

AnnaSophia is certainly no advocate of animal cruelty
I'm aware.
Her fight for the stop of dolphin slaughter for example is well known.
Indeed, AnnaSophia brought up the issue twice, once recently and the other around the time when the documentary The Cove was released.
And we should not assume that because she has attained some celebrity status that it automatically entails that she lives in some sort of "bubble" as described and that she must be unaware of such things in this world that the rest of us are supposed to know.
You seem to be inferring that I consider AnnaSophia a ditz. If so, I will clarify by saying, it's entirely the opposite. I've concluded she's an intelligent person and, as mentioned, notably selfless (http://annasophiarobb.com/pay-it-forward.php, https://therewithcare.org/who-we-are/video/, and so on).
Let us not forget that she attended a large urban public high school for four years, certainly an ideal dissemination point for all of the same sorts of data, both fact and fiction, that we ourselves have been exposed to, nothing was ever shielded from her eyes.
Of course, AnnaSophia has been through a few rough times and probably even a couple of heartbreaks, however, she's definitely on the side of higher (emotional) protection. Because her parents are well off and AnnaSophia is an only child, she's had the benefit of being pampered, including her mother sticking by her side during almost everything. Would I therefore describe AnnaSophia as spoiled, clueless, or dependent? Absolutely, not. It's great that she's so close to relatives and has people who strongly care about her.

Although, the extra comfort and security has no doubt kept Robb from any catastrophic situations. Again, good, but, sometimes, those extra painful moments provide otherwise indescribable insight.

Nevertheless, as you so plainly put it, "simply say that she made an easy error of judgement." In other words, I have no intention of looking down on AnnaSophia for less and continue to admire her in many ways.

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[–] Odie33 11 years ago

Didn't notice this until recently: https://twitter.com/peta/status/439161092431183873

Anyway, good call PA.

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[–] SarahBryantfan 11 years ago

Well, at least she is taking a stand for something. Too many actors and actresses fail to do so.