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Spin-Doctoring for Baby-Elephant Beaters Is Bad for Business, Warns GroupFor Immediate Release:May 13, 2010
Contact:RaeLeann Smith 757-622-7382
Vienna, Va. -- Any public relations firm that is considering picking up the account of Vienna, Va.-based Feld Entertainment--the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus--may think again after seeing PETA's new full-page ad in the May 10 edition of PR News. The ad features a photo of a baby elephant being roped around all four legs and pulled to the ground by bullhook-wielding trainers. The photo was taken by a former Ringling employee. The ad reads, "Represent Ringling: Risk Your Reputation. No Amount of PR Can Make Beating Baby Elephants Sound Good." Feld Entertainment is currently advertising for a new public relations firm.
"Ringling Bros. is a public relations nightmare waiting to happen," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "There's not a PR team in the world that is slick enough to sell the beating of baby elephants, the whipping of tigers, and the use of chains, bullhooks, and electric prods on animals--all for the sake of a few cheap tricks."
Before firms consider Ringling's offer, they should view the dozens of recently released photos taken inside Ringling's Florida training center by a veteran elephant handler. The photos expose how baby elephants are dragged away from their mothers, slammed to the ground, gouged with steel-tipped bullhooks, and shocked with electric prods. These fear-based and abusive training methods have contributed to the deaths of at least two baby elephants: One fled his bullhook-wielding trainer and drowned in a pond, and the other broke both hind legs after falling from a training pedestal. Other baby elephants have also died at Ringling.
In light of the evidence documenting the routine abuse of animals at Ringling, PETA has called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to revoke Ringling's exhibitor's license.
For more information, please visit PETA's Web site RinglingBeatsAnimals.com.