Written by Jeff Mackey
PETA has joined Animal Defenders International in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for illegally issuing permits allowing the Ringling Bros. circus to export endangered tigers and elephants for use in its shows anywhere at any time for the next three years!
FWS has allowed incomplete permit applications from Ringling for far too long. It is illegal to export endangered animals, and the Endangered Species Act includes exceptions to this prohibition only in the most limited of circumstances. To get a permit, an application containing very specific information needs to be submitted to FWS—and as a matter of law, all this information must be made available to the public.
FWS violated this requirement in numerous ways by issuing these latest permits. First, it didn't tell the public about four of the elephants Ringling sought to export, so PETA and the public were illegally deprived of some of the information related to the applications. In addition, the permit applications to which the public was given access lacked extensive information required by law, including details about when, to where, and for how long Ringling intends to export the animals as well as specific data about Ringling's supposed conservation education activities, which it used as justification for the permit.
Because concerned citizens were denied this information—and because FWS must stop illegally rubber-stamping incomplete permit applications—PETA has filed suit.
There's no telling how much these animals will be forced to endure abroad, where, in many countries, animal protection laws are scarce and enforcement is even less common. One of the elephants FWS is allowing Ringling to export is Sarah, who tested positive for tuberculosis and was taken off the road after collapsing last year in Anaheim, California—and after the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited Ringling for failing to treat her adequately for a chronic infection.
At home or abroad, Ringling is bad news for animals, which is why more and more people are speaking out against the circus's inexcusable cruelty. Help the animals abused by Ringling by adding your voice at RinglingBeatsAnimals.com.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
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.
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.
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.
Animal advocates' voices are being heard loud and clear today, as PETA and eight other animal protection organizations have joined forces to keep Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from taking "The Cruelest Show on Earth" abroad—including to Mexico, where animal protection laws are virtually never enforced.
Ringling applied to export and re-import endangered Asian elephants and tigers based on an Endangered Species Act (ESA) exemption that permits transporting the animals for the purpose of enhancing the species' survival. But animal rights groups from the U.S. and Mexico are calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to deny the application because the only thing Ringling wants to enhance is its bank account. Not only does dragging endangered animals across the border and beating them in order to force them to perform not qualify for this ESA exemption, it also flies in the face of what the ESA was designed to do: protect animals.
Ringling just paid the highest penalty in circus history for its animal abuse—$270,000 for violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). In the last few years, Ringling has racked up more than 50 violations of the AWA involving the care of big cats and Asian elephants. In fact, Ringling's own documents admit what PETA's investigation found: that its handlers beat elephants bloody with bullhooks.
But in the past, when the circus has gone to Mexico—where Ringling is exempt from even the minimal oversight that it receives in the U.S.—animal abuse has gone unrestrained. A Ringling handler was caught on video whipping a baby elephant in the face, causing the baby to screech and recoil. Handlers forcefully jabbed elephants with bullhooks all over their bodies, including inside their tender mouths and ears, and one handler was seen shocking an elephant with an electric prod.
PETA will continue to fight to keep Ringling's animals on American soil, where they have at least some protection. Meanwhile, please urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture to seize Ringling's ailing elephants and retire them to sanctuaries.
You might recall that last fall, PETA convinced Simon Property Group, the largest real estate company in the country, to ban exotic-animal exhibits at all its properties. At one mall that Simon owns in Winchester, Virginia, Cole Bros. Circus makes an annual appearance during the city's Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival, which means that Cole Bros. would have to skip this city altogether or use only human performers in its show—no animals whatsoever.
Marion Doss|cc by 2.0
To our surprise, that is just what the circus is doing! The Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival announced that Cole Bros. had created "a new-concept circus in 2012 entitled 'Circus of the Stars' that they feel will be just as dazzling and just as amazing as previous circuses." I'm of the opinion that seeing a circus replete with daring and funny human performers would be considerably more exciting than watching frightened, abused animals forced to do silly tricks.
Cole Bros. has a long history of repeatedly violating the Animal Welfare Act and recently incurred a $15,000 fine after PETA filed two complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding the physical safety and psychological well-being of two of its elephants. It was also forced to pay $150,000 for illegally selling endangered elephants to someone wholly unable to provide them with proper care, in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
But this humans-only circus is a great start toward making Cole Bros.' abuse of animals a thing of the past, and PETA will continue working to have venues host only the circus's animal-free performances.
Written by PETA
Update: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has ordered Cole Bros. to pay a $15,000 penalty for its numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
After receiving complaints from PETA about the cruel and neglectful treatment of elephants Tina and Jewell, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has now formally charged Cole Bros. Circus and its owner, John Pugh, for numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including the following:
In addition, Cole Bros. Circus and Pugh were charged with exhibiting animals without a license, employing a tiger handler who lacked adequate training, and illegally dealing in tigers.
The charges follow the seizure of Jewell and subsequent surrender of Tina in 2009 after the circus was slapped with a $150,000 fine for illegally selling the elephants in violation of the Endangered Species Act. Tina and Jewell were rehomed at a zoo, which, while not ideal, is a considerable improvement over being trucked across the country in chains and cramped, stuffy trailers.
Wherever the circus goes, you can bet that animal suffering goes with it. Please leave these cruel shows off your summer itinerary and choose animal-free circuses instead.
"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.
Local laws designed to protect these animals are not being enforced because the circus skirts authorities or uses its financial clout to get them to look the other way," wrote Alec. "That's why I am writing to you and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to step up and enforce the Animal Welfare Act.
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.
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.
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.
In the final chapter of a case we've been following for some time now, the Knoxville Zoo has agreed to pay a $9,000 fine stemming from the death of elephant handler Stephanie James, who was crushed by Edie, a female African elephant.
The zoo was initially cited after PETA urged the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA) to enforce the law in the wake of the highly preventable fatality. TOSHA agreed with PETA and assessed a fine, but the zoo had contested the decision before finally settling the case this week.
Benoit Dupont|cc by 2.0
In addition, after this incident, PETA urged the Knoxville Zoo to switch to a safer and more humane method of working with captive elephants called "protected contact," in which barriers always separate elephants and handlers and bullhooks are never used, and the zoo agreed. While this is a definite improvement, no zoo can provide an adequate environment for the needs of elephants, so PETA will stay on the job until all captive animals are free.
In advance of the Ringling Bros. circus' stop in Baltimore later this month, Jada Pinkett Smith, a proud native of Charm City, has written to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake urging her to make sure that the city's absolute ban on the use of any "mechanical, electrical, or manual device that is likely to cause physical injury or suffering" to induce or encourage an animal to perform is enforced, according to Baltimore City Health Code § 10-407(a), to prohibit Ringling from using bullhooks on elephants.
In her letter, Jada explains, "Unlike me and other actors, elephants do not choose to perform. They are often violently coerced by Ringling's trainers with bullhooks, which are jabbed into the sensitive areas of their bodies."
Using bullhooks on elephants in Baltimore would be against the law—not that the violation would be a first for Ringling, which was slapped with a record $270,000 fine for abuse of animals in circuses, stemming from dozens of violations of the Animal Welfare Act all the way back to 2007.
Join Jada Pinkett Smith, Cloris Leachman, Chrissie Hynde, and many more kind people in demanding action to protect the elephants abused by Ringling.
Ringling Bros. might have gotten a reprieve from the bullhook ban in Fulton County, Georgia (claiming it can't have elephants without the weapons), for the moment, but The Cruelest Show on Earth couldn't escape the throngs of people who showed up to protest on its opening day.
Armed with a bullhorn, posters, leaflets, a flat-screen TV that showed a video of trainers as they beat elephants with bullhooks, giant inflatable pachyderms, and large, eye-catching pictures of "elephant training," the protesters drew quite a crowd.
The circus … not so much. Word from inside was that it didn't look like many people had bought tickets.
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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