Written by PETA
Bobby and Moira Roberts, the owners of Britain's Bobby Roberts Super Circus, have been charged in connection with the appalling beating of an elephant named Anne, whom handlers were caught on tape pummeling with a pitchfork and a club. Anne has since been moved to a better situation, but the Robertses will still have to answer for causing Anne to live in misery, chaining her continuously, and allowing her to be beaten.
It's time for U.S. government officials to be equally active. Elephants used by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus are routinely beaten with bullhooks and traumatized during abusive training sessions.
Click here to ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop ignoring, dismissing, and deferring Ringling's violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
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.
As if being beaten and sodomized at 5 years old weren't enough to endure, Rose-Tu, an elephant at the Oregon Zoo, is facing her second forced pregnancy.
The Oregon Zoo paid a $10,000 federal fine after authorities found that this youngster had sustained 176 gashes and cuts after being repeatedly struck with a bullhook—a heavy baton with a sharp metal hook on the end—that was also used to sodomize her. It's little wonder that Rose-Tu's first forced pregnancy resulted in the chaining of the confused and frightened mother after she kicked her newborn.
Traumatic, costly elephant-breeding programs are indefensible. The mortality rate for babies is high, and no baby who manages to survive will ever be released into the wild. If Rose-Tu's pregnancy is successful, her baby may eventually be shipped to Have Trunk Will Travel, an outfit caught on tape abusing elephants, including a baby.
Remember: The way that you can make the most difference for animals like Rose-Tu is by never buying a ticket to the zoo.
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.
Toka, Thika, and Iringa—the three elephants at the Toronto Zoo—will soon be on their way to paradise. By a vote of 31 to 4, the Toronto City Council overwhelmingly agreed that California's Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary is a much more appropriate home for these elephants. Earlier, there had been a push to send the three to another zoo.
© Digital Vision | Just Elephants | Getty Images
PETA and our colleagues at Zoocheck Canada kept up the pressure, writing to councilmembers and mobilizing Canadians to make their opinions known. Now, these three elephants will know the joys of roaming freely, swimming in ponds, taking dust baths, and socializing with other elephants. PAWS has a history of healing and restoring quality of life to elephants who have become debilitated from years in captivity.
TV icon and animal defender Bob Barker has offered to pay for the elephants' relocation to the sanctuary at a cost estimated to be between $100,000 and $300,000.
As an unrelated bonus, the City Council received a standing ovation when it also voted to ban the possession, sale, and consumption of shark fins, with hefty fines for violators.
Now, it's Lucy's turn. Please click here to ask Edmonton officials to follow their Toronto colleagues' lead and send this ailing and lonely elephant to PAWS, and click here to urge the Toronto Zoo and City Council to send Iringa, Toka, and Thika to the sanctuary without delay.
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.
We know where Bill Maher got the shirt that he wore to perform at George Washington University—'cause we made it. Lookin' good, Bill.
© Michelle Rattinger/ GW Hatchet.
Speaking of making it: After becoming the first vegan to win a Food Network cooking competition, chef Chloe Coscarelli is still on a (vegan-buttered) roll, making the world a better place for animals and our waistlines. Check out her scrumptious new recipes on Eatocracy.
Anna Wintour took some heat for being cold-hearted enough to wear several cold-blooded animals on her back. "She looks like she got that at a consignment store where pimps drop their coats off," said E! news anchor Giuliana Rancic.
Another proud animal friend who's "still right here" is Melissa Ferrick, who is currently on tour promoting her new album. The adoption advocate would love what Robert Downey Jr. and his wife, Susan, are up to—the couple adopted a pair of cats their friend found in a bush.
Cats don't belong in the wild, but elephants certainly do, according to Coldplay, whose new video features the band members dressed up as elephants searching for "Paradise."
Written by Michelle Sherrow
In light of the new policy issued by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) that will minimize contact with elephants as well as the use of bullhooks in AZA-accredited zoos, PETA is renewing our call to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to make protected contact a requirement for circuses, traveling shows, and non-AZA facilities.
With protected contact, there is always a barrier between handlers and elephants, which is not only more humane but also much safer for both species. Bullhooks—heavy batons with a sharp metal hook on the end—are never used to beat elephants into compliance.
OSHA—whose mandate is to protect workers—has acknowledged that "the issue of workers exposed to large animals [is] a serious occupational health and safety concern," but the agency nevertheless rejected PETA's previous call to require that captive elephants be managed in the protected-contact system.
Even if OSHA doesn't act, the AZA's policy should put an end to dangerous practices like the elephant rides at the Santa Ana Zoo, which are provided by an outfit called "Have Trunk Will Travel" that has been caught on video beating elephants with bullhooks. But the policy doesn't fully go into effect until 2014, and elephants can't wait. Please urge Santa Ana Zoo officials to stop the cruel and dangerous rides without delay.
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
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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