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.”
