Bay Area to Ringling: Keep Out!
Citing Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus’ constant abuse of animals, several influential California humane societies—the Marin Humane Society, the East Bay SPCA, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, and the Sacramento SPCA—are publicly calling for a boycott of the circus, asking families to stay away from Ringling performances scheduled for the San Francisco Bay Area over the next few weeks.
The elephants used in this production—three of whom are 50 and older—are forced to perform the same silly, repetitive, and uncomfortable tricks year after year. Assan and Baby were born in Asia, were taken from their families, and have been used by Ringling for more than 40 years. At the end of the circus’s recent run in Anaheim, an elephant named Sarah, a 54-year-old wild-captured elephant with a history of infection, about whom we have complained, collapsed while being loaded into a railroad car.
Kudos to these humane societies for taking a firm stand against blatant animal abuse. Please, ask your local humane society to follow their example by publicly asking families to stay away from Ringling Bros. Circus and never patronize a circus that uses live animals. Contact our Action Team for help.
Written by Jennifer O’Connor
