Two Lansing Businesses Get PETA Award for Dropping Circus Sponsorship

Companies Withdraw After Learning About Broken Laws and How Elephants and Other Animals Are Beaten Under the Big Top

For Immediate Release:
January 5, 2011

Contact:
David Perle 757-622-7382

Lansing, Mich. — For agreeing not to sponsor any circuses that use animals, Lansing businesses Hawk Hollow Properties and Comfort Inn & Suites will each receive PETA's Compassionate Business Award. The companies had sponsored performances by the Caravan Circus—which has repeatedly been cited for violating federal animal welfare laws—at Michigan State University (MSU) but decided to cancel all such sponsorships after learning from PETA and MSU animal rights group Students Promoting Animal Rights about the circus's abysmal record of animal care. Each company will receive a framed certificate and a letter of thanks.

"Hawk Hollow Properties and Comfort Inn & Suites have set a wonderful example for other businesses to follow," says PETA Director Debbie Leahy. "Elephants in circuses are often beaten into submission, kept in shackles and chains, and forced to spend their lives performing tricks that are often painful and frightening to them—and they suffer just as any other animal would."

The Caravan Circus (aka "Royal Hanneford Circus") has been repeatedly cited for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), including for failing to provide veterinary care to three elephants. Royal Hanneford also leases elephants from Carson & Barnes Circus, which has been cited and fined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for repeated violations of the AWA. Undercover video footage of Carson & Barnes animal care director, Tim Frisco, who was traveling with the circus when it appeared at MSU, shows him cursing at terrified elephants and viciously attacking them with bullhooks (sharp, steel-tipped devices that resemble fireplace pokers) and electric prods as they scream and recoil in pain.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.