Josep was an abusive circus trainer who used cattle prods on his elephants.
Biography
Elephant Trainer
- "Cassie and I had come to the elephant pen before the circus and seen the way their trainer treated them. He had used a cattle prod on them. It's a stick with a massive electrical shock. He used it to control the animals. Later, during the show, he'd put on a big act of loving his elephants. But I'd seen the cattle prod. I just sat there, doing a slow boil all through the show. I knew I was going to have to take some action. The elephant trainer's name was Josep something. Something hard to pronounce. Well. He didn't know it yet, but Mr. Josep Something was about to have an eye-opening experience."
- ―Rachel[src]
Josep was a circus trainer who worked with Asian elephants, and used cattle prods on them. In 1997, Josep participated in a circus being held at the City Arena[1] in a city in California.[2] Prior to a performance, he used the cattle prods on his elephants in their pen, and unbeknownst to him, he was spotted by Rachel and Cassie. During the actual circus performance, Josep paraded as if he loved his elephants, furthering the rage Rachel felt. Following the performance, Josep returned to his quarters when he was alerted by a loud elephant noise. Rushing into his pen, he noticed an African elephant there and remarked that it was not one of his elephants before the African elephant suddenly used its trunk to grab him by the waist and hoist him into the air. Rachel, in elephant morph, thought-spoke to Josep, claiming to be from the International Elephant Police, although Josep believed he was hearing voices. Squeezing Josep so he struggled to breathe, Rachel threatened to kill him if he did not stop using cattle prods, to which Josep replied that the elephants were his property to do as he saw fit. Rachel then lowered Josep towards the tip of one of her tusks and threatened to impale him, and Josep agreed to stop hurting his elephants. Rachel then asked Josep if he could fly, and when Josep responded that he could not, Rachel tossed him through the air, causing him to fly twenty feet before landing on a tent. Rachel believed that no actual harm would have occurred to Josep since he landed on the tent, and she demorphed and left.[1]