Animals Denied Vet Care, Confined to Cramped Cages: Circus to Draw PETA Presence

For Immediate Release:
November 2, 2022

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Detroit

As UniverSoul Circus sets up shop at Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre on Friday, PETA supporters are set to cause a ruckus by alerting would-be ticket buyers to the circus’s long, wretched history of denying wounded animals veterinary care and working with disgraced animal exploiters—urging people to stay away.

When:    Friday, November 4, 6–7:15 p.m.

Where:    Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, 2600 Atwater St. (at the intersection with Dubois Street), Detroit

Public records show that while on tour with the circus, a limping tiger was denied treatment, elephants were denied vital foot care, and big cats were confined to cramped cages 24/7. In just one inspection, county animal-control officers discovered a camel named Emmett with a 3-inch-long laceration on his right hind leg, a camel named Larry with a swollen ankle and foot that needed to be treated and drained, a zebra with a wound on his nose, and horses with cracked and chipped hooves that were “in bad shape.”

“UniverSoul should showcase only talented humans, but instead it is carting animals across the country; is forcing them, under threat of punishment, to perform stupid tricks they can’t understand; and has denied hurt animals veterinary care,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Welfare Debbie Metzler. “PETA urges everyone in the Motor City to motor on by this dismal display and enjoy a Friday night without animal exploitation.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.

For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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