Carson & Barnes Trainer Videotaped Beating, Shocking Elephants

For Immediate Release:
October 21, 2009

Contact:
RaeLeann Smith 757-622-7382

Dallas -- This morning, PETA sent a letter to Southwest Center Mall Manager Lisa Long alerting her to the fact that the Carson & Barnes Circus--which will be at the mall next week--is a chronic violator of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The group also informed Long that the circus's animal-care director has been caught on videotape viciously attacking elephants with bullhooks and electric prods. PETA is urging the mall not to host Carson & Barnes in the future.

PETA's letter was accompanied by video footage, which shows Carson & Barnes' animal-care director, Tim Frisco, repeatedly attacking elephants with steel-tipped bullhooks and shocking them with electric prods as the animals scream and recoil in pain. "Tear that foot off! Tear it off! Make 'em scream!" Frisco instructs trainers. "Right here in the barn. You can't do it on the road. I'm not gonna touch her in front of a thousand people." The undercover video footage reveals standard elephant-training practices used by the circus industry.

"In circuses such as Carson & Barnes, bullhooks, electric-shock prods, whips, and chains are the rule," says PETA Director Debbie Leahy. "To these circuses, the suffering and deaths of animals are simply part of the cost of doing business."

Video footage of elephant beatings can be seen on PETA's Web site Circuses.com.

PETA's letter to Southwest Center Mall Manager Lisa Long--as well as to Ezri Namvar, president of Namco Financial, which owns the mall--follows.


October 21, 2009

Ezri Namvar
President
Namco Financial

Lisa Long
Manager
Southwest Center Mall

Dear Mr. Ezri and Ms. Long:

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is a nonprofit organization with more than 2 million members and supporters dedicated to the protection of animals. We have obtained video footage documenting elephant abuse at the Carson & Barnes Circus, which is scheduled to perform at the Southwest Center Mall on October 30, 2009. While we realize it may be too late to cancel this year's event, we ask that you kindly consider the information below and make the compassionate decision not to host Carson & Barnes, or any other circus with animals, on your property in the future. May we meet with you to discuss this issue?

Undercover video footage shows Carson & Barnes animal care director Tim Frisco viciously attacking terrified elephants with bullhooks--instruments with sharp metal hooks and tips that resemble a fireplace poker--and electric prods. Frisco instructs other trainers to hurt the elephants until they scream and to sink a bullhook into their flesh and twist it. Frisco also cautions that the beatings must be concealed from the public. A U.S. District Court judge described this video as "troubling" and noted that it depicts conduct that violates the federal Animal Welfare Act. Mr. Frisco continues to work for Carson & Barnes and was just spotted last week working with elephants owned by Carson & Barnes at a fair in Massachusetts.

The use of bullhooks results in pain, suffering, and trauma, often including lacerations, puncture wounds, and abscesses. Although elephants' skin appears tough, it is so sensitive that elephants can feel the pain of an insect bite. Trainers embed the hooks into the elephants' skin and soft-tissue areas. Bullhook abuse is routine at circuses, but penalties are rare. Elephants will not be afforded more humane care until communities prohibit these cruel devices.

An elephant's ability to feel pain--as well as sorrow, joy, and happiness--rivals our own. In circuses, every instinct is subject to discipline, and animals live a sad life of punishment and confinement. Elephants who reach for a blade of grass suffer a painful blow from a bullhook. A fumbled trick during the show often results in a beating.
 
We hope you agree that the abuse of animals in circuses is unacceptable. Please make this year's Carson & Barnes visit the last. Thank you for your consideration of this matter. 

Sincerely,

RaeLeann Smith