Written by PETA
Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, must now pay the largest settlement of its kind in U.S. history―$270,000―for violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) dating back to 2007.
PETA has been after the USDA all this time to take action against Ringling for abusing the animals in its care. In recent meetings, we presented unequivocal evidence of animal abuse, including beatings, the death of a lion, lame elephants forced to perform despite chronic pain, and a baby elephant who died during a training routine. We had recently filed a new formal request for action against Ringling, and our attorneys had met with the USDA's general counsel and urged her to begin enforcement proceedings.
PETA presented testimonial and photographic evidence that baby elephants at Ringling's training compound are torn away from their mothers and subjected to violent training sessions so that they will learn how to perform tricks, as well as video footage from a PETA investigation showing how elephants used by Ringling are whipped, beaten, and yanked by heavy, sharp steel-tipped bullhooks behind the scenes, prior to performing.
In addition to receiving the largest civil penalty ever assessed against an exhibitor under the AWA, Ringling must now provide all employees who handle animals with training and hire a staff member dedicated to AWA compliance. We will see how that goes.
This is a great start, but no one should forget that elephants and other animals pay the price every time anyone buys a ticket to the circus. Ask all the parents you know not to take their children to this cruel show, and explain why or show them this blog.
Please click here to thank the USDA for taking action against Ringling for its abuse of animals, and urge officials to go a step further and confiscate the circus' sick and ailing elephants.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
If the thought of sitting in a car for hours on end with whining kids, a hard-of-hearing grandma, and a cigar-puffing uncle this Thanksgiving weekend makes you feel queasy, imagine making the trip in a poorly ventilated boxcar with no heat. Upon arriving at your destination, instead of being greeted by welcoming family members, a hearty meal, and a warm bed, you're prodded into a march to an arena basement, where you're chained to a concrete floor until being poked and jabbed into the ring and forced to perform meaningless, repetitious, uncomfortable, and even painful tricks in front of a screaming crowd.
That is a snapshot of the lives of the elephants who are dragged from one circus show to the next—but a new bill before Congress could give elephants, tigers, and other exotic animals used by circuses a reprieve.
Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia has introduced H.R. 3359, the Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act, which would, among other measures, prohibit exhibitors from forcing animals to be transported for more than 12 hours without a break and ban forcing animals to perform if they had traveled within the past 15 days, effectively prohibiting circuses from trucking the animals around the country for months at a time.
Internal Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus documents show that elephants used by the circus are chained for up to 100 hours straight (and an average of 26 consecutive hours per trip) while traveling between cities. Not surprisingly, Ringling opposes the bill and has called it an "attack" on "tradition."
Ringling is spending mega-dollars to oppose H.R. 3359, which is why it is so important that you take a moment to click here to contact your representative to ask him or her to support the bill or to thank your legislator if he or she is already a co-sponsor. Let your representative know that animal abuse is not a tradition worth supporting.
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.
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.
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
After leading the charge for hundreds of protestors demonstrating outside the Ringling Bros. circus, Biggest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels found time to give an interview about why she is fighting for elephants and how people can get involved. Getting the word out about circus cruelty "is the easiest thing to get behind," says Jillian.
Many elephants used by Ringling suffer from crippling arthritis and other debilitating ailments because they spend most of their lives in boxcars and chains.
Follow Jillian's lead: Post notes on Facebook and Twitter urging parents and grandparents never to buy tickets to Ringling. Write a letter to the editor. And contact PETA's Action Team to help plan your own demonstration when the circus arrives in your city.
Imagine having to perform strenuous physical tasks even though you were suffering from diarrhea and abdominal discomfort so severe that you were taking pain medication. That's just another day in the life of Banko, a 35-year-old female Asian elephant traveling with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus who was forced to perform even though she was sick.
Of course, this is the same Ringling show that is dragging around ailing elephant Sarah, who collapsed last month while being loaded into a boxcar in California. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cited Ringling for failing to provide Sarah with adequate veterinary care and for requiring Banko to perform (doing so was inconsistent with promoting her good health and well-being).
The USDA also issued a citation to Ringling for handling animals in a way that causes injury after a handler closed a cage door on the tail of a 9-year-old tiger named Kimba, who suffered a laceration as a result. Ringling gave every appearance that it had something to hide when it denied federal officials access to the employee who was responsible.
Tell every parent you know what's really going on at Ringling Bros. Ask them to avoid supporting circus cruelty by refusing to buy a ticket.
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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