Wounded 'Elephant' Tells Waco Schoolchildren: Circuses Hurt Animals

PETA's Ellie to Hand Out 'Kind Action for Elephants' Comics Following Revelation of Ringling's Violent Treatment of Baby Elephants

For Immediate Release:
April 14, 2010

Contact:
Lindsay Rajt  757-622-7382 

Waco, Texas -- An "elephant" with a bloody bandage wrapped around her head will greet students as they leave Bell's Hill Elementary tomorrow. The elephant will hand out activity booklets that include comics teaching kids how to take kind action for elephants. The booklets explain to kids and their parents that animals used by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus--which is scheduled to visit Waco soon--are jabbed with spiked, metal bullhooks and beaten to make them perform.

Where:    Bell's Hill Elementary, 2125 Cleveland Ave., near the intersection of Cleveland Avenue and S. 22nd Street, Waco
When:      Wednesday, April 14, 2:45 p.m.

"If children knew how animals suffer behind the scenes, their smiles would quickly turn to frowns," says PETA Director Debbie Leahy.

PETA's protest comes on the heels of its formal appeal to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to revoke Ringling's animal exhibitor's license over the ongoing cruelty by the circus. (See the story in this week's New York Daily News.)

At the center of PETA's campaign are dozens of never-before-seen 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.

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