JohnnyEnzyme comments on TIL about Mabel Stark, lifelong tiger trainer. Here she is in her Ringling Bros. era in the early-to-mid 1920s. For 57yrs, Stark walked into cages full of tigers and survived at least 18 maulings.

TIL about Mabel Stark, lifelong tiger trainer. Here she is in her Ringling Bros. era in the early-to-mid 1920s. For 57yrs, Stark walked into cages full of tigers and survived at least 18 maulings. (media.piefed.social)

submitted 3 weeks ago by JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social to c/historyphotos@piefed.social

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NOTE: there's just no way around the fact that this is now considered reckless animal abuse, and thankfully has been eradicated around much of the modern world (but not all, sadly). Stark lived in a different time, though... is something that I hope can be considered in this case.

Mabel was thus considered America's first famous female tiger trainer. Amazingly, she practiced until the age of 79yo, when she was unceremoniously fired when her employer's insurer dropped her coverage. She died by suicide three months later, unable to bear life away from her big cats.

All credit to u/dannydutch1 for this discovery and the key text & facts. More here:
https://www.utterlyinteresting.com/post/mabel-stark-the-world-s-first-female-tiger-trainer

I can highly recommend Danny's site, which seems to specialize in controversial figures & happenings across the contemporary era. Always with lots of historical photos!

[–] JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social [S] 13 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

Don’t try to white wash terrible people. Even in those times they knew it was animal abuse.

If you'd read the post, then you'd know that I'm not doing any kind of whitewashing here. The facts & content are courtesy of Danny Dutch, and I specifically wrote the intro to address this kind of thing.

That said, I appreciate the added context, as it tends to flesh out what Danny had already found about Stark's maulings by the tigers.

I'm curious though who exactly you're calling a "terrible person," because I don't see such a person here unless you're talking about some kind of overseer boss, or perhaps the circus owners themselves. Ms. Stark by contrast seems to me like someone caught up in this unfortunate situation, weirdly addicted to it, and one who paid a heavy price... many times.

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[–] diverging@piefed.social -2 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

The phrase "lived in a different time" is whitewashing. It's asking everyone to ignore the evil shit that a person did.

I’m curious though who exactly you’re calling a “terrible person,”

The person who chose to attack a tiger with a whip, knowing that it was cruelty to animals.

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[–] JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social [S] 9 points 3 weeks ago* (3 children)

Then you might as well say that everything across history that might offend someone later is "whitewashing." The point is that she lived in a time when audiences largely felt these things were okay, and now we don't, starting with the OP (me).

You can point the finger anywhere you like of course, but the reality is that this was a show spectacle, whereas nowadays we treat most domestic animals (and wild ones, really) with far more horrific cruelty, but the difference is that we do it out of sight. Ever read about what animal husbandry is like these days...?

The person who chose to attack a tiger with a whip, knowing that it was cruelty to animals.

My understanding of these trainers (ideally) is that they used their whips for control, not for the purposes of "attacking" the animals. The object was to use the loud whip-cracking sounds to intimidate the tigers and keep them in obeyance. Attacking them directly would be a fool's errand IMO, as it would be hard to damage them much, and would quite likely enrage them.

My attempt was to present an even-handed transmission of Danny's post, but I guess it's inevitable that a holier-than-thou type would try to take things out of context and stir shit up here, huh?

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