Talk:Elephant execution in the United States

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Topsy[edit]

This list has a very narrow WP:LISTCRITERIA, namely members have to be executed. Per Nance, Susan (2013). Entertaining Elephants: Animal Agency and the Business of the American Circus and several contemporaneous newspaper accounts [1] Topsy meets the lists exclusion criteria "elephant euthanasia", they describe how she was put down because they could no longer maintain her. Topsy is also excluded per WP:WIKIVOICE / "If different reliable sources make conflicting assertions about a matter, treat these assertions as opinions rather than facts, and do not present them as direct statements." "execution" is a very direct statement. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 13:01, 7 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Fountains of Bryn Mawr: it's so funny. Of all the things the things that might be problematic about this article Topsy's inclusion never even crossed my mind as a possible point of dispute! So I don't really know what to say. I'm not trying to force a POV and the distinction between animal euthanasia and animal execution probably has a lot of qualitative, emotional attributes I'm not equipped to evaluate, but yeah, I don't know, I mean...they sure did make an extravagant show out of killing her publicly. jengod (talk) 15:05, 7 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, that's the thing, Topsy ranks right up there re: "animals killed as a public spectacle". That would be another list and feel free to put her at the top of that one. But WP:WIKIVOICE is policy, we really can't make a claim she was specifically executed. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 22:08, 7 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]