Animal Rights Groups Unite in Los Angeles to Protest Ringling Appearance

Alec Baldwin's PETA Video Showing How Cruel Circus Torments Baby Elephants Will Shock Attendees, Say Organizers

For Immediate Release:
July 10, 2012

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382 

Los Angeles -- Representatives of PETA, Animal Defenders International, In Defense of Animals, Last Chance for Animals, and the Animal Protection and Rescue League will descend on the Staples Center on Wednesday—opening day of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus—with a message for prospective circusgoers: Don't go! Armed with blown-up photos of Ringling trainers as they stretch out baby elephants, slam them to the ground, shock them with electric prods, and strike them with sharp steel-tipped bullhooks, the protesters will screen a video exposé narrated by longtime PETA pal Alec Baldwin showing how Ringling routinely beats and torments elephants—including babies.

When:   Wednesday, July 11, 12 noon

Where:  Outside the Staples Center, at the intersection of 12^th and Figueroa streets, Los Angeles 

 "Children would run screaming from the big top if they knew that sheer violence is used to get baby elephants to perform difficult, confusing, and even painful tricks," says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Delcianna Winders. "As PETA's video shows, show business is no business for elephants."

Approximately half of the elephants held by Ringling were captured from the wilds of Asia, where they would roam up to 30 miles a day. In circuses, they are kept in chains, sometimes for days on end. They are dragged around the country in poorly ventilated trailers and boxcars for up to 50 weeks a year in all weather extremes.

For more information, please visit PETA's website RinglingBeatsAnimals.com.