Written by PETA
Award-winning actor and Miss Chicago 1946 Cloris Leachman has sent an appeal on behalf of PETA to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel asking that when Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus comes to town today, city authorities keep in mind local ordinances that prohibit cruelly forcing animals into undue exertion and harboring sick or injured animals unless they are under the care of a veterinarian.
During Ringling's last stop in Chicago, federal officials cited the circus for numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including failure to provide a young, chronically lame elephant with adequate care. In the ensuing year, independent elephant experts have found that a number of elephants (including Sarah, who collapsed in August) traveling with Ringling are chronically lame and exhibit signs of life-threatening arthritis. Yet Ringling continues to haul these sick and aging elephants across the country.
Please join Cloris by calling Mayor Rahm Emanuel at 312-744-3300 and follow up by sending a polite e-mail to him, his chief of staff, and his press office asking that authorities ensure that Ringling comply with Chicago's laws prohibiting cruelly forcing their elephants into undue exertion.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
Remember how PETA called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to order Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to remove a sick elephant named Sarah from the road? Well, Sarah is still being prodded into boxcars and arenas, despite the fact that she is suffering from a chronic infection and arthritis—which is why The Daily Show correspondent and star of the highly anticipated Aaron Sorkin HBO series More as This Story Develops Olivia Munn has added to PETA's pleas with one of her own:
Sarah even collapsed earlier this summer in California while being loaded onto the circus's train, yet Ringling had her up and performing in the very next show.
Please click here to join PETA and Olivia now in calling on the USDA to seize Sarah and transfer her to a reputable facility where she can get the care and treatment that she so desperately needs. And urge the agency to comply with its legal duty to notify the U.S. attorney general of the serious dangers to Sarah's health so that a temporary restraining order or injunction can be obtained to protect Sarah's well-being.
Update: Because it is illegal in Ohio to use a bullhook on an elephant, PETA is offering a $5,000 reward to any arena employee who documents use of the bullhook if it leads to a citation against Ringling Bros. circus.
Originally posted October 4, 2011
Rock star, animal defender, and Ohio native Chrissie Hynde has sent a letter to Cleveland officials to remind them that there is a ban in the state against using prods like bullhooks and "hot shots" on animals in circuses and asked for confirmation that humane authorities would make sure Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus doesn't use them on elephants when the circus comes to town next month. In response the letter, the mayor wrote that the city shares Chrissie's concerns and that "[a]n inspection will be conducted and the event monitored to ensure that the use of bullhooks and other devices that cause harm to circus animals are not used during the Cleveland event."
We'll be watching to make sure that the mayor keeps his word, but we won't be watching the circus, and neither should you.
Beatings, bullhooks, and betrayal: A scathing 10-page article in the November issue of Mother Jones magazine titled "The Cruelest Show on Earth" lays bare Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' dirty secrets. Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Deborah Nelson has slammed the door shut on any doubts about the circus's entrenched culture of animal abuse and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) repeated failure to take meaningful enforcement action against the circus.
Nelson details the painful and premature deaths of baby elephants Kenny, Benjamin, and Riccardo and how the USDA barely addressed their cases. She also discusses the trauma, terror, and painful wounds that babies Doc and Angelica endured when they were forcibly removed from their mothers. Ringling employees acknowledge that elephants suffer "hook boils" (infected bullhook wounds), and records and interviews document that babies are dragged away from their frantic mothers, that elephants spend days on end chained in railroad boxcars, and that nearly all the elephants are suffering from lameness. In addition, by 2008, more than a third of Ringling's elephants were infected with tuberculosis.
USDA officials have admitted that they take an arms-length approach to Ringling. Kenneth H. Vail, who served as the USDA's legal counsel for many years, said, "If I were an elephant, I wouldn't want to be with Feld Entertainment."
Don't wait to borrow a copy of the magazine—run out and buy the November/December issue of Mother Jones today.
An elephant used by a circus in Vietnam trampled an 11-year-old girl to death after the girl and some friends snuck into the area where the elephant was shackled. The elephant, who had reportedly been taunted by children earlier, lifted the child up and threw her down, repeatedly stepping on her.
Elephants are hardwired to walk for miles every day. When their freedom of movement is reduced to the length of a chain, they quickly become despondent, frustrated, and unpredictable. In the U.S. alone, captive elephants have killed 15 people and injured more than 135 in the past 20 years.
Never buy a ticket to circuses like Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey that still exploit elephants. Instead, enjoy spectacular cruelty-free productions like Cirque du Soleil instead.
Written by Jennifer O’Connor
Having friends in high places has always been an advantage that Feld Entertainment, owner of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, has enjoyed. Take Lisa Wallenda Picard, Ringling's former director of public relations, who has held numerous high-ranking positions with federal agencies and recently took a vice president job with the National Turkey Federation.
She's not the only former—or current—Feld lobbyist with connections to some of the highest levels of government:
Considering Ringling's cozy relationship with government insiders, it comes as less of a surprise that three animal-abuse cases against the circus languished for years before they were quietly dropped by the USDA's Office of the General Counsel. PETA recently met with the newly appointed USDA general counsel to request that she reopen the cases, which involve a lion named Clyde, who baked to death in a train boxcar as it traveled through the Mohave Desert; a baby elephant named Riccardo, who was killed after breaking both of his hind legs during a training session; and the severe beating of a chained baby elephant named Angelica. These matters are all being reconsidered for possible charges.
While Ringling hires well-connected lobbyists to put a positive spin on bullhooks, shackles, and whips, you can help end the cruelty by refusing to buy a ticket to the circus and persuading everyone you can not to go.
After hearing from PETA and concerned area residents, Glendale, California, Mayor Laura Friedman has proposed changing the city's float entry for the 2012 Tournament of Roses Parade from a "circus elephant"—which represents pain and suffering—to one of an elephant in a natural setting.
Check out the draft design idea that PETA submitted to the mayor and city council for an "Elephant Freedom" float:
Please ask the Glendale City Council to support Mayor Friedman's kind position.
Citing Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' constant abuse of animals, several influential California humane societies—the Marin Humane Society, the East Bay SPCA, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, and the Sacramento SPCA—are publicly calling for a boycott of the circus, asking families to stay away from Ringling performances scheduled for the San Francisco Bay Area over the next few weeks.
The elephants used in this production—three of whom are 50 and older—are forced to perform the same silly, repetitive, and uncomfortable tricks year after year. Assan and Baby were born in Asia, were taken from their families, and have been used by Ringling for more than 40 years. At the end of the circus's recent run in Anaheim, an elephant named Sarah, a 54-year-old wild-captured elephant with a history of infection, about whom we have complained, collapsed while being loaded into a railroad car.
Kudos to these humane societies for taking a firm stand against blatant animal abuse. Please, ask your local humane society to follow their example by publicly asking families to stay away from Ringling Bros. Circus and never patronize a circus that uses live animals. Contact our Action Team for help.
An elephant who was being loaded into a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus boxcar collapsed after struggling to climb the ramp, and according to an eyewitness, a Ringling crew member intimidated and forced the elephant to get up and into the railroad car. The circus was loading animals after finishing a run in Anaheim, California, and was on the way to Ontario, California. Reports indicate that the elephant who collapsed is Sarah, an elephant whose removal from performances PETA called for last month because of her poor physical condition.
Many of the elephants forced to travel with Ringling are ill and in pain. Just weeks ago, two independent veterinarians with many years of experience with elephants analyzed video footage of Ringling’s elephant walk and opening night performance in Los Angeles and determined that one of the elephants "is clinically lame to the point of being crippled. Her condition is painful and she should not be performing" and another elephant with "a lump on [her] left upper leg demonstrates obvious pelvic lameness."
Please join PETA in calling on Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait to make this the last time that Ringling comes to town and Ontario Mayor Paul S. Leon to allow an independent expert―not a Ringling lackey―to check on the elephant's condition.
Sarah Silverman doesn't think there's anything funny about hurting animals. The comedian and provocateur has fired off a letter on behalf of PETA to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking that four ailing elephants traveling with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus be seized. These four girls are still on the road and being forced to perform despite the fact that PETA drew the U.S. Department of Agriculture's attention to this arthritis and lameness more than nine months ago.
Performing circus tricks is a painful struggle for these animals ... Yet Ringling's elephant handlers—who have zero vet experience—continually stab the animals with sharp metal rods called bullhooks in order to keep them performing despite their ailments.
Sarah points out that veterinarians have documented incontrovertible evidence showing that Nicole, Karen, Juliette and Sara are being forced to perform grueling tricks despite suffering from lameness. Nicole and Karen also suffer from painful arthritis—the number one reason that captive elephants are euthanized.
Add your voice to Sarah's by asking Secretary Vilsack to order these four hurting elephants off the road.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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