PETA's work to put a stop to the elephant rides offered at California fairs by the notoriously cruel exhibitor Have Trunk Will Travel—including submitting extensive written testimony to fair board members, sending a PETA representative to testify, and issuing an action alert—continues to bear fruit, as Orange County has followed in the compassionate footsteps of the Santa Ana Zoo and will no longer be hosting elephant rides.

Marion Doss | cc by 2.0

The Orange County Fair had hosted Have Trunk Will Travel—whose trainers have been caught on video repeatedly shocking elephants with electric prods and beating them with bullhooks (cruel instruments resembling fireplace pokers)—for 25 years. But after more than a year of pressure from PETA, Animal Defenders International, and others, including many wonderful PETA Files readers—have I told you lately that I love you?—the OC Fair has told the animal abusers at Have Trunk Will Travel to step off.

How You Can Help Elephants Used by Have Trunk Will Travel

Please thank the members of the OC Fair Board for their compassionate decision and ask the San Diego County and Los Angeles County fairs to follow suit by banning Have Trunk Will Travel.

wwarby | cc by 2.0

Great news: After more than a year of pressure from PETA, the Animal Protection and Rescue League, Animal Defenders International (ADI), and celebrities—including Charo and Switched at Birth star Constance Marie—the Santa Ana Zoo in California has announced that it will discontinue cruel and dangerous elephant rides.

This is a big deal for the elephants, who are dominated and controlled by bullhooks—barbaric training devices that resemble a fireplace poker—as can be seen in video footage from ADI that shows that trainers from Have Trunk Will Travel, the company that provided elephant rides for the zoo, beat and shocked elephants into submission. When not working, the elephants spend much of their time chained by two legs, barely able to take a step forward or backward.

Elephants are highly intelligent, social, and curious animals who deserve better than being forced to plod along in circles all day while being prodded by a bullhook for people's amusement. Elephants who are subjected to the constant threat of physical punishment—like those who provided rides at the zoo—are also more prone to dangerous and unpredictable behavior and present an unnecessary safety risk to the public.

Please click here to send a thank-you note to Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and click here to thank Gerardo Mouet, the executive director of the city's Parks, Recreation and Community Services Agency, for making the compassionate decision to end the elephant rides. Be sure to add a P.S. to Mr. Mouet to ask him to make the same decision for the Orange County Fair since Have Trunk Will Travel provides the rides there, too, and Mouet is on the fair's board.  

Despite being informed about the cruelty of hauling elephants around in tractor trailers and "controlling" them with bullhooks, California's Orange County Fair is going ahead with plans to offer elephant rides provided by an outfit called "Have Trunk Will Travel" (HTWT). HTWT is the same exhibitor that was caught on tape hitting elephants with bullhooks and shocking them with electric prods. 
 
The fair's contract with HTWT allows it to cancel the rides for this year's fair by this Thursday (tomorrow), so please send a message today to fair officials urging them to do so. Be sure to add that you hope that they eliminate these cruel and dangerous rides permanently.
 

Written by Jennifer O'Connor