Murray Hill's Blog Spot

Welcome all exotic wildlife fans. With emphisis on elephants. ALL comments pro and con are welcome. Maybe with different views, we can all come to a concluion as to what will be best for the exotic animals and the human animals.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Mitie Mites

These are the Mitie Mites in 1966. At their first performance in Ft Wayne, IN. Total combined weight was 965 lbs. Left to Right.... Tory, Onyx and Dutchess. Their height ranged from Tory being 38" to Dutchess being 31". They were center ring with the Diano Heard on our left ring handled by Paul and Dotty Kelly, on our right was The Castle Elephants handled by Bert Pettis and his daughter Sandy Pettis.

posted by Murray Hill @ 9:18 AM  

5 Comments:

  • At Thursday, 03 August, 2006, Blogger Murray Hill said…

    At the time this was taken the Mitie-Mites were the smallest and youngest performing elephants. At a later date I added a chimp to the act.

     

  • At Thursday, 03 August, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Its a shame there aren't more baby elephants in the business. Just showing up in the ring is a beautiful sight. It would be a great way for them to earn their keep. Working elephants are the healthy ones. You did great with these three Murray. I thought I was the only one to spell Dutchess like this. It was a mistake and I did not know how to change it on the computer so it stuck.

     

  • At Friday, 04 August, 2006, Blogger Murray Hill said…

    maitai1960 & dutchess42

    Thanx for your interest.

    Mai Tai it wasn't difficult to train them but it was very time consuming.

    Being infants, still on the bottle it was easy to handle them and I found that they were willing learners.

    I would work with each individual 8 to 10 minutes, 5 to 6 times a day. At the end of the day I would put all three in the ring together and start a routine which was no more than letting them get aquainted to work together. I also would take about an hour a day and let them play together as babies would.

    They also had to know what the bull hook was for. Not for punishment or abuse but for guiding and control as it would be needed in the future. I have always felt there has to be respect from me to them and visa versa, but in all cases there must be control. So I become the leader.

    I have found with any of the animals that I have trained one of the most important things is continuity.

    Dutchess I know that they call it progress but we no longer can get babies from their native lands. There are not enough in this country that are breeding and that mostly is a lack of finances. We would love to be able to get into that field.

    You are absolutely right that the working elephants are the healthiest and I feel the happiest. I know that since we opened the ARC letting them roam and doing nothing thay get bored.

     

  • At Friday, 04 August, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Murray, I found that people do not want or have the time it takes to train their pets to behave. I can spend hours trying to tell them you must train every day and do the same things everyday. They get bored and quit. Their pets become spoiled pets that no one wants. I have has several clients or know people who never trained their pets, so when they died no one wanted to take the animal. Thats how several ended up with me. These animals learned very quickly once they understood just what I wanted from them. You have to be very strict about this. Simple set or down and stay does wonders. I finally told several people who I knew did not have the gumpson to work with their little pets, to just pick them up and carry them in their arms. Its redickulas {?} how a 6 pound pet can make a fool out of a 180 pound human.

     

  • At Wednesday, 04 April, 2012, Blogger TC said…

    Its cool to see this. Bert was married to my great aunt Marie.

     

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