Tell Brian Franzen to Stop Forcing Animals to Perform in Circuses!

While circuses around the world are moving away from exploiting animals, exhibitor Brian Franzen continues to force a lone geriatric elephant named Okha to perform in cruel circuses wherever he can make a quick buck. Franzen has a long history of documented animal abuse and has been cited dozens of times for violating animal protection laws, including for keeping tigers in rusty cages, allowing ponies—one of whom died from apparent neglect—to become dehydrated and emaciated, and repeatedly striking an elephant in the face.

Animals used in circuses are deprived of everything that’s natural and important to them. They experience severe distress from constant traveling, they’re confined to small cages or kept chained, their spirits are broken through the use of painful weapons such as bullhooks—heavy batons with a sharp hook on the end—and they’re forced to perform in front of screaming audiences. Elephants are sensitive and keenly intelligent beings who even flirt with each other and argue over directions. Treating them as mere props is a form of speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.

Responding to a groundswell of changing public opinion, hundreds of venues and dozens of communities have banned or restricted the use of animals in circuses and other traveling acts. After more than 50,000 PETA supporters asked Mysterious Circus to no longer use Okha, who was supplied by Franzen, the circus confirmed that it now offers animal-free entertainment. Your actions on behalf of animals used in entertainment are working!

Urge Brian Franzen to send Okha to a reputable sanctuary and stop forcing animals to perform.

Send polite comments to:

Brian Franzen
Owner
Franzen Bros. Circus
[email protected]

Please feel free to use our sample letter, but remember that using your own words is always more effective.