FOXSYLVANIA

— In his planned comeback concerts in London that now we’ll never see, Michael Jackson reportedly planned a nature theme which heavily involved live creatures; for his entrance, there was talk of Michael riding an African elephant while panthers were led on gold chains and parrots and other birds flew behind him.  PETA and other animal rights groups understandably filed protests with officials, pointing out that “Animals don’t want to perform stupid tricks on a stage surrounded by screaming people, bright lights, and stage explosions.” Jackson subsequently announced that he would not be using any live animals in his concert series.

PETA filed a complaint in January 2006 claiming that animals were mistreated at Jackson’s Neverland ranch.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture inspected the animals at Jackson’s zoo, and found no evidence of abuse and neglect.

In addition to the well-known Bubbles the Chimp, Jackson had a fascination with animals, especially exotics.  He even liked spiders, and as his early song Ben might suggest, had a pet rat when young…