Is it crying that I hear from circus elephants in DuPage County?

There were movies I watched when I was a kid that tore my heart to pieces. They're still hard to watch today.

One was "Old Yeller." I remember trying to catch my breath between convulsive sobs when that beautiful, loyal dog had to be shot and killed by his young master. Old Yeller had to be put down after becoming violently rabid from the bite of an infected wolf that he had stopped from attacking the young boy and his family. I'm surprised it didn't ruin my childhood. What was Walt Disney thinking?

Another is "Dumbo". I could hardly watch that scene when the baby elephant's mom, locked up in a circus cage, snakes her trunk through the metal bars to take hold of her little Dumbo with the big ears.

Which brings me to the protest at the circus at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton. Members of PETA are alleging cruelty to elephants, which the circus denies.

Which made me think. Are those elephants crying?

I remember watching a program in which it was reported that elephants shed real tears of grief and pain, just like humans.

Not that I am a card-carrying PETA recruit, but I can't shake the image of big tears rolling from those elephants' eyes. Thanks to that report. And Dumbo's mom.

So I did some quick research to determine if elephants cry. One of the best sources I came upon is a book "When Elephants Weep, The Emotional Lives of Animals" by Jefferey Moussaieff Masso and Susan McCarthy.

The authors write of Charles Darwin being told "that some newly captured (Indian) elephants in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) tied up and lying motionless on the ground, showed 'no other indication of suffering than the tears which suffused their eyes and flowed incessantly.'" And of "another captured elephant 'uttering choking cries, with tears trickling down his cheeks.'"

The book also makes note of others who are skeptical about elephants shedding emotional tears. Hard to confirm.

But there is evidence that elephants may grieve in their own right. They at least engage in very curious behaviors when there is death among them.

The authors write of the reaction of a band of African elephants to one of the females among them dropping to the ground, dying. One elephant tried to raise her up with its tusks. Another put food in her mouth. They stroked her with their trunks. They at last moved on, except for a calf and its mother, who stood with her back to the elephant, "reaching back to touch her with one foot." She eventually slowly walked away "when the other elephants called to her."

Elephants have also been seen covering their dead with foliage and showing keen interest in the bones of their own species.

An indication of ceremonial suffering? The authors are sure elephants "do a have a concept of death." Or is it all a mere animal ritual that can't be explained in humankind terms.

I have been trained not to jump to unfounded conclusions. And the science here is inexact.

And I know we tend to view our animals as members of the family formed from our own flesh and blood. I am guilty of that with our golden retriever. There's nothing wrong with that. It's a strong indication of our capacity to love and be humane.

So I don't know if elephants cry.

Yet I can't shake the thought of those elephants in Wheaton weeping over their crummy existence for the sake of our entertainment.

I do know for sure that if elephants do indeed cry, they wouldn't be shedding tears over being released back to a happy life in the wild.