For Immediate Release:
September 8, 2006

Contact:
Lisa Wathne  757-622-7382

PETA’s letter was accompanied by the videotape, 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 videotape reveals standard elephant-training practices used by the circus industry.

"Bullhooks are cruel tools of the circus trade that are routinely used to beat elephants into submission," says PETA Director Debbie Leahy. "Mayor Docimo and the Township Committee must send circuses a message that such instruments of torture will not be permitted in West Deptford."

Video footage of elephant beatings can be seen on PETA’s Web site Circuses.com. PETA’s letter to Mayor Docimo and the Township Committee follows.

September 8, 2006

The Honorable Anna Docimo
Mayor of West Deptford Township
West Deptford Township Committee
P.O. Box 89
Thorofare, NJ 08086

Dear Mayor Docimo and Committee Members:

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is a nonprofit organization with more than 1.1 million members and supporters dedicated to animal protection. In consideration of the documented elephant abuse that takes place at the Carson & Barnes Circus, which is scheduled to perform in West Deptford on September 16, we are writing to ask the township to enact legislation that would ban bullhooks, electric prods, and other devices that inflict pain on or cause injury to elephants. Similar legislation is pending in Chicago. May I please meet with you to discuss this issue?

The enclosed video footage shows Tim Frisco, Carson & Barnes’ animal care director, viciously attacking terrified elephants with metal bullhooks and electric prods. Frisco instructs other trainers to hurt the elephants until they scream and to sink a sharp metal 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 Animal Welfare Act. Carson & Barnes paid a $400 fine for mishandling elephants.

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

We hope you agree that the abuse of animals in circuses is unacceptable and that you’ll make next week’s Carson & Barnes performance the last time that elephants will have to endure the bite of a bullhook in West Deptford. You can contact me at 757-622-7382. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Lisa Wathne
Captive Exotic Animal Specialist

Enclosures: Carson & Barnes Circus factsheet and elephant-training video
Chicago’s proposed Elephant Protection Ordinance
Affidavit from undercover investigator re Carson & Barnes Circus