Islip, New York, Denies Cole Bros. Circus’ Permit Application

May 6, 2015

The Islip, New York, Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs opted to ban Cole Bros. from performing as part of a fire department fundraiser after hearing from members of PETA and Long Island Orchestrating for Nature about the circus’s long history of animal abuse. Cole Bros. doesn’t even have a license to exhibit animals any longer, so it leases them from Carson & Barnes Circus—another notorious circus that has been cited numerous times by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for failing to meet the minimum standards of the Animal Welfare Act. Carson & Barnes’ animal-care director, Tim Frisco, has been caught on tape ordering elephant handlers to beat elephants so hard that it “make[s] ’em scream.”