Elephant Bubble Plans Popped

A California science center has ditched plans to surround an elephant with a giant soap bubble, reports the LA Times, after a thousand outraged emailers protested the plan and zoo professionals blasted it as a "Vegas-style sideshow."  A "bubble artist" had planned to break a world record by blowing a bubble with a 39-year-old Asian elephant named Tai in it.

Two years ago the same elephant was painted to match wallpaper for a British artist's installation to illustrate "elephant in the room." LA's head of animal services didn't like that stunt, and he didn't like the bubble, either, calling it "the worst sort of animal cruelty." The center denied the cruelty charge, but said they were uninviting the elephant out of worries that protesters might spoil the show. "Bubblefest" will go ahead anyway, with "billions of bubbles." No word if anything will be in them. (More elephant stories.)