I have been associated with circuses fairly early on in my career at the university when I was in a horse practice, because circuses would come to the university with their animals when they were in town. And again, I showed interest in some of these critters, so that I was the point person. I got acquainted with these people, I was invited to go to visit the circus, to actually watch them raise the big top. There was a circus that was still doing a big top, and they used their elephants to lift the tents up. And that intrigued me. And then I got asked by one of the veterinarians to evaluate an elephant in Cleveland, Ohio, because it was lame. Dick Hulk was his name, Richard Hawk, and I went there and evaluated the animal. From then on, I had different people.
