There was an elephant downtown today. That's right, little old Goettingen had a live elephant out in the city square this morning! I wasn't there, so I thought it was a weird joke at first when Vivian casually mentioned "Oh yeah, I saw an elephant downtown," but then she showed me the picture she took on her camera phone, and there it was! Apparently they were advertising for a circus that's coming soon.
I don't like the idea of elephants being in a setting like that, where people can come up to them and touch them and whatnot; it's dangerous for the people as well as totally unnatural for the elephant. But as my friend Jen pointed out, at least it probably gives people more of an awareness and knowledge of this animal that they might not otherwise see in real life.