What do the people who know the most about elephant care have to say on the issue of traveling circuses?

Regarding Treatment of Elephants:

  Ron Kagan,the current Director of the Detroit Zoo:    
"Unfortunately, elephants that live on the road are not able to have either appropriate physical or social environments. Constant travel, daily and prolonged chaining and rigorous physical training are all stressful and harmful to elephants. These animals are intelligent and social, and suffer psychological as well as physical harm if they are not provided for properly. By definition, it is not possible for a traveling circus to provide an appropriate physical environment with free-roaming space, natural substrates, stable climatic conditions, etc.
  
Joel J. Parrott, DVM, current Executive Director of The Oakland Zoo:
"What keeps an elephant under control lies in the elephant’s training. The training can be severe, using techniques that include prolonged hitting by the elephant trainer with clubs, stabbing with the point of the ankus (bullhook), electricity, electric prods, prolonged chaining, and food deprivation. This is what keeps the general public safe from the wild elephant."
  
Dr. Isis Johnson Brown became a veterinarian in 1991. As a veterinary medical officer, she conducted animal welfare inspections of zoos and circuses in Oregon for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for two years, between 1997 and 1999. Johnson Brown criticizes the USDA for its poor job of enforcing and upholding the minimum standards in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), noting, "The system is not set up to protect animals. Instead of protecting animals as required by law under the AWA, the USDA most often protects the financial interests of the licensees. Many complaints are filed with no action taken by the USDA."
 Tom Rider is a former circus employee who has more than three years of experience working with elephants in circuses. He worked for Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus in 1997 as an elephant keeper and for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the elephant barn from June 1997 to November 1999. Rider asserted, "Bullhooks are not 'guides'; bullhooks are weapons. A guide should not be a sharp steel-tipped device with a heavy handle that easily rips an elephant's sensitive skin." Rider also noted, "Even baby elephants are subjected to extreme cruelty. Baby Benjamin was systematically abused in an effort to quash his natural rambunctiousness. ... Benjamin was beaten simply for trying to interact with another baby. Benjamin was killed in a pond at 4 years of age while trying to get away from a trainer who was prodding him with a bullhook."
 
 
Regarding Safety of Elephants in Close Proximity to the Public:
According to the Aquarium and Zoological Association's Standards for Elephant Management and Care (Adopted March 21,2001 and updated May 5, 2003): "In the interest of safety, AZA strongly encourages members to discontinue public elephant rides." Also in that document: "AZA strongly discourages the practice of walking elephants [in the zoo] in public areas during public hours."

Blayne Doyle, a police officer for 34 years, was assigned to work traffic detail at a circus in Palm Bay, Florida, on February 1, 1992. During that dreadful day, an 8,000-pound Asian elephant named Janet rampaged with a mother and five children on her back, forcing Doyle to shoot her 34 times. Doyle testified that a bullhook "will not protect the public from a rampaging elephant" and that "bullhooks do not ensure control and are made to induce pain for compliance only." He also stated, "I have seen my share of danger over the past four decades, but I can assure you that although I've been shot and stabbed; been in automobile, motorcycle, and airplane accidents; and been in more than my share of other life-threatening situations, I have never seen a situation as frightening—or one I was less capable of controlling—than that day that Janet snapped and ran amok."

Lisa Landress, Senior Elephant Keeper at the San Diego Zoo for 11 years, warns parents to keep their children away from elephants. As she puts it, “They can move so quickly, and these types of things [mishaps and attacks] can happen in two seconds. That’s what the public doesn’t understand…and what they need to get.”