Written by PETA
As the L.A. County Fair opens this Saturday, notorious elephant-abusing company Have Trunk Will Travel (HTWT) is scheduled to be there, selling rides on elephants. There is still time for people to e-mail L.A. County Fair organizers and ask that they send HTWT packing.
If HTWT attends as scheduled, members of PETA and Animal Defenders International (ADI) will protest at the entrance to the fairgrounds on Saturday afternoon. The groups will screen the video footage that ADI obtained showing HTWT trainers striking elephants with sharp, metal-tipped bullhooks and shocking them with electric prods.
Although fair organizers have seen this footage and heard from countless people, including classic rock band Styx, asking them to bar HTWT from the fair, they have refused to do so. By allowing HTWT at the fair, organizers are not only supporting elephant abuse but also putting the public at risk. One of the elephants used by HTWT revolted at the Denver Zoo, throwing a trainer against a wall, knocking over a woman and her baby, and scattering crowds of visitors. Another elephant who came from HTWT trampled a handler at the L.A. Zoo, smashing his collarbone and bruising three ribs.
Help keep the pressure on the L.A. County Fair and remind the organizers that there is nothing festive about cruelty to animals.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
When rock legends Styx heard about Have Trunk Will Travel's (HTWT) abuse of elephants, they said, "Have pen, will write."
The band is set to perform at the L.A. County Fair in September, but when they learned from PETA that HTWT will be providing elephant rides at the fairgrounds, the gig hit a sour note. Styx wrote to fair organizers, asking them to send the pachyderm exploiters packing.
I'm sure you know about the video footage released by Animal Defenders International showing trainers from Have Trunk Will Travel … as they shock elephants with electric prods and hit them as hard as they can with sharp metal-tipped bullhooks, causing the animals, including a baby, to scream in pain. —Styx
Styx gets a big domo arigato for speaking out against abusing elephants. And unless it wants to prove it has the heart of a "Mr. Roboto," the L.A. Fair should heed the rockers' advice and cancel the elephant rides. Join Styx in telling L.A. County to keep cruelty out of the fair.
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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