As President Obama hits the road, he's finding himself dogged by an elephant. PETA is asking Mr. Obama to direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to start confiscating these abused animals, who are so cruelly trained and treated by Ringling Bros. and other circuses.

Circus Cruelty Is Bull(hooks)

In fact, in the circus, abuse is the norm. Handlers frequently embed the sharp end of a bullhook into the soft tissue behind elephants' ears and knees and under their chins. The USDA has the ability and the responsibility to seize suffering animals, and yet the agency allows them to travel up to 50 weeks a year in cramped and filthy boxcars and trailers, to be kept in shackles, and to be beaten. Even lame elephants are forced to stand with all their weight pressing on their hind legs and to perform tricks that can only be painful.

PETA's complaints against Ringling Bros.—filed over several years—regarding beatings and the death of elephants, including one particular baby among several who succumbed during training, resulted in the largest fine in circus history. But while fining Ringling Bros. and then Cole Bros. circuses is a good step in the right direction, it is only small step, and it does nothing to abate the horrors that elephants are enduring right now. The USDA must use its powers of confiscation and remove from abuse the dozens of elephants who are still suffering in circuses. That's why PETA is appealing directly to the president.

What You Can Do

Please take a minute of your time to weigh in regarding these suffering elephants and push for them to get the retirement they deserve. Please use this form to urge President Obama to order the USDA to confiscate all ailing animals from Ringling and other circuses now. And, if Ringling or another circus is coming to your town, please contact us, and we’ll give you all the information and materials that you need to convince people to stay away. 

Following PETA's undercover investigation into Triple F Farms, a massive ferret-breeding operation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has fined the company nearly $17,000 for violating at least eight regulations under the Animal Welfare Act.

A Bad Business

The violations were discovered during USDA inspections conducted in response to PETA's submission of video footage and other evidence.  

Documents recently obtained from the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division show that Triple F President Jack Fallenstein also agreed to pay 28 employees more than $28,000 in back wages to settle 38 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act following a federal investigation prompted by PETA's complaint to the agency.

Triple F: Failing Ferrets

PETA's investigation into the ferret mill lasted nearly four months and documented systematic and often fatal neglect and abuse of ferrets. We found that Triple F owners, supervisors, and workers left newborn ferrets for dead when they fell through wire cage bottoms 3 feet onto the filthy concrete floor, housed ferrets in severely crowded conditions, and deprived ferrets with bleeding rectal prolapses, gaping wounds, herniated organs, and other painful conditions of veterinary care or euthanasia. PETA's investigator also saw ferrets thrown into the trash—and into the facility's incinerator—while still alive.

Triple F sells ferrets to pet stores and laboratories around the world. Since 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has had contracts worth more than $1.5 million with the company. The CDC signed even more contracts with this filthy factory farm after PETA shared its evidence and the USDA's findings with CDC brass. PETA has called on the agency to rescind Triple F's contracts and disqualify it from future contracts. The National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Navy have also had contracts with Triple F worth nearly $400,000.

What You Can Do

Please urge the director of the CDC's Procurement and Grants Office to stop the agency from funneling taxpayer dollars to Triple F.

After hearing from PETA, the city of Corona, California, ordered the Ramos Bros. Circus to halt its illegal display of exotic animals immediately. 

Apex Feline|cc by 2.0

PETA received several calls from members telling us that Ramos Bros. was displaying exotic animals, including zebras and camels, which is illegal in Corona. We promptly contacted the city, which sent an inspector to the circus. After the inspector confirmed that Ramos Bros. was illegally displaying exotic animals, the city ordered the circus to remove the animals or be shut down, noting that Ramos Bros. had previously been informed of the prohibition on displaying exotic animals.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has repeatedly cited Ramos Bros. for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, and numerous citizens have called PETA to report disturbing abuse that they witnessed, including observing a large number of scars on animals' bodies and seeing animals confined to cramped, filthy enclosures with no access to water or shade. 

This victory sends a strong message to cruel circuses that abuse won't be tolerated. Join PETA's Action Team today to help enact a similar ban and work to help animals in your community.

Update: Rather than follow in Rio Rancho's compassionate footsteps, the New Mexico State Fair has decided to allow Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to perform on the state fairgrounds from June 1 to 3 despite Ringling's long history of animal abuse and the vocal opposition of many citizens. You can express your disagreement with the state fair's decision by calling the general manager of the state fair, Dan Mourning, at 505-222-9739 and politely telling him that Ringling should not be allowed to perform on the state fairgrounds. You can also follow up your call with an e-mail to Mourning.

Ringling just got its bell rung, courtesy of Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The circus was scheduled to perform in the city in June, but because of Ringling's sordid history of violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and its recent $270,000 fine from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the city refused to issue Ringling a permit to perform.

James Preston|cc by 2.0

Just last year, Rio Rancho added a provision to its animal ordinance barring any animal shows that had been fined by the USDA in the past five years or cited for violating the AWA in the last three years. Since Ringling just paid the largest fine in circus history last year and racked up 10 violations of the AWA in the past three years, it certainly didn't pass muster. PETA has sent a thank-you letter to the city.

Ringling's Next Move—and How to Stop It

Now Ringling is trying to haul "The Cruelest Show on Earth" to the state fairgrounds in Albuquerque. PETA is appealing to the Tingley Coliseum at the fairgrounds, detailing Ringling's long history of animal abuse and urging the venue to block the circus just as Rio Rancho has.

What You Can Do

Call state fair officials at 505-222-9700 and politely urge them not to allow Ringling to perform. You can follow up your call with an e-mail to the general manager of the state fair, Dan Mourning.

PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman, who's also the mother of a child in the California public school system, has written to the administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service asking that the service pull all beef and cow's milk from school lunches after mad cow disease was discovered in an animal at a California rendering plant.

A group of parents who are "DAM MAD" (Dads Against Meat and Mothers Against Dairy) also converged on the Sacramento headquarters of the California Department of Food and Agriculture to urge it to protect children by pulling meat and dairy products from school lunches.

Playing Russian Roulette With Kids' Health

What's truly mad is continuing to feed beef and cow's milk to students, especially because "spent" cows, whose milk supply is exhausted by the dairy industry, are the primary concern when it comes to mad cow disease and are likely to end up as the kind of cheap ground beef that is fed to schoolchildren.

Given that the USDA has expanded its quarantine to a second dairy farm, that it still has not located the infected cow's mother or siblings (who may also have the disease), and that it doesn't even know what the California dairy industry is feeding its cows (because that's considered a "trade secret"), the USDA must stop risking our children's health and remove beef and cow's milk from school cafeterias right away.

Protecting Factory Farms, Not Consumers

Tracy's letter and the demonstration by the DAM MAD parents coincided with another PETA appeal to the USDA urging Secretary Tom Vilsack to correct misleading statements that he made regarding the detection of the disease—also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)—that created a false and dangerous sense of security by erroneously claiming that the nation's human and animal food supply is safe.

In the letter to Vilsack, PETA points out that there is no way to know how many other animals are infected with mad cow disease because only a tiny fraction—about 0.1 percent of the nearly 34 million cows who are slaughtered every year—are tested for BSE. It's also likely that milk from the cow who tested positive entered the food chain, and contrary to the USDA's assurances about the safety of milk, studies have already shown that another form of the disease can be spread from mother to baby through milk.

How to Help Stop the Threat of Mad Cow Disease

Worried that tainted milk or meat may be on your child's lunch tray? Don't wait for the USDA to act. Protect your kids (and yourself) by packing healthy and humane vegan lunches—and keep it up at breakfast, dinner, and snacktime, too!

In a moving TV news report about two bear cubs orphaned near Cherokee, North Carolina, who were rehabilitated and released into their native habitat, Cherokee Chief Michell Hicks commented, "It makes you feel good to know that you were able to help an animal that was in an unfortunate situation." PETA wants Chief Hicks to feel even better, so we're asking him to help other bears in unfortunate situations: those who are languishing in Cherokee's squalid bear pits. 

Unbearable Conditions

The three roadside zoos on the reservation—Cherokee Bear Zoo, Chief Saunooke Park, and Santa's Land—have all received numerous U.S. Department of Agriculture citations for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including failing to provide veterinary care, feeding bears moldy food, exposing bears to electrical outlets and sharp metal, and leaving bears' fur caked with feces.

But despite the citations, the bears are still kept in barren concrete cages, where they exhibit neurotic behaviors brought on by the stress of intense confinement, such as pacing, walking in circles, crying, and begging tourists for food.

What You Can Do

Chief Hicks said the rehabilitation of the bear cubs showed the kind hearts of the Cherokee people. Ask him to extend that compassion to all bears by working to close the Cherokee bear pits and retire the animals to sanctuaries.

"As a lifelong Democrat, I never thought I'd lead an effort to defend the symbol of the Republican Party," writes Alec Baldwin in a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Baldwin is sending Vilsack the video he hosted for PETA exposing Ringling Bros.' abuse of animals and asking the USDA to take action.

Despite the fact that many states and cities have animal protection laws in place that prohibit abuse such as beating animals with steel-tipped bullhooks, forcing crippled animals to work, or keeping animals in chains, state and local laws often go unenforced, and circuses like Ringling continue their cruel business as usual. But the USDA has the power to change that.

Under the Animal Welfare Act, the USDA has the power to seize all of Ringling's arthritic elephants who are forced to perform, meaning that these animals, who are beaten day after day to make them to perform painful stunts, could then be retired to sanctuaries. It would be another positive step for the USDA to take toward protecting animals from cruelty, after last year's landmark $270,000 fine levied against Ringling for animal welfare violations.

Join Alec in asking the USDA to step up in behalf of elephants once again.

After inspectors found animals kept in appalling conditions without proper care, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cited two disreputable roadside zoos in North Carolina for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA). PETA keeps these two hellholes constantly in our sights and had just filed a complaint about Jambbas Ranch Tours before the inspection. 

Jambbas Ranch Tours

A USDA visit to Jambbas Ranch Tours last month following a PETA complaint led to a citation for AWA violations after inspectors discovered a thin elderly llama who had a "thick creamy discharge" oozing from an eye socket (the eye "has been gone for some years"). As PETA had told the USDA, the llama also appeared to be suffering from diarrhea—the animal had a large area of what appeared to be dried feces on the back legs but was given no medical treatment for these conditions.

The inspector also observed a raccoon whose tail and part of whose hindquarters showed complete hair loss, as PETA had reported. The animal was being given an ineffective flea- and tick-control medication, which wasn't prescribed by a vet as required by law. Immediate veterinary care was ordered to treat the raccoon's condition.

Cherokee Bear Zoo

An inspection of the Cherokee Bear Zoo last month resulted in a repeat citation for failure to feed a young tiger cub a healthy, edible, and contaminant-free diet. The cub is described as "small and underweight for its age. The coat looks dull, dry, and brittle."

The shabby animal prison (one of three around Cherokee, North Carolina) also received a citation for failure to vaccinate the same tiger cub. The operators were warned of the need to correct this failure "from this day forward."

Pathetic Prisons

Roadside zoos range from small menageries to large compounds—but they are all unhealthy environments for animals. The owners' focus is on their customers' desires, not the animals' needs, so neglect and abuse are common.

How You Can Help These Animals

These cruel operations stay in business only because people patronize them, so please never visit a roadside zoo, and encourage your family and friends to stay away too.

Notorious animal abuser Doug Terranova may not work for peanuts, but the $25,000 fine that he was recently slapped with by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act has to have put a dent in his bank account.

Terranova's Sordid History

PETA has been keeping tabs on Terranova—who rents animals to circuses, fairs, TV shows, and movies like Spy Kids 2 and Rushmore—for years and has filed multiple complaints about his careless handling of elephants and tigers.

In one incident, an elephant named Kamba, whom Terranova had rented to a circus in Oklahoma, escaped and ran onto the highway, where she was hit by a vehicle and sustained several injuries, including a fractured carpal bone, a broken tusk, and numerous abrasions. The USDA confiscated a tiger cub from Terranova after two other tiger cubs died in his care at the Iowa State Fair.

The USDA has stipulated that when Terranova's license comes up for renewal, it will be renewed only if he no longer owns, handles, or exhibits elephants. In the meantime, Terranova is still on the road and will be performing with the Shrine Circus.

How You Can Help Abused Animals

Boycott the Shrine Circus, and ask your local Shriners to stop sponsoring animal acts.