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The Associated Press

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NEW YORK - In the fight of elephants versus people, the elephants now have the upper trunk.

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AP

Juliet Lee, 43, was one of the three human competitors that lost to a team of circus elephants in a hot dog bun eating contest.

Three circus elephants scored a decisive victory over three human competitive eaters at a cross-species eating contest Friday, chomping down on 505 hot dog buns in six minutes. The humans forced down only 143 buns in the bout at Brooklyn's Coney Island amusement park.

The elephants, Bunny, Susie and Minnie - all in their 40s - ate at what appeared to be a leisurely pace from behind a table piled high with buns. They even paused to eat some fresh fruit, which was not counted toward scoring.

Their human competitors were far more focused. Eric "Badlands" Booker, a New York City subway conductor who is the world champion in corned beef hash eating, took a double-fisted approach, dipping two buns at once into liquid to make them go down easier.

Contest organizers called the results a "setback for humanity," but the two sides may not have been fairly matched. The humans weigh about 500 pounds (226 kilograms) collectively, while the Asian elephants weigh about 18,000 pounds (8,000 kilograms), the organizers said.