Lily Tomlin Issues Emergency Appeal in Support of Bullhook Ban

For Immediate Release:
December 9, 2014

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Oakland, Calif. –

With the Oakland City Council poised to vote tonight on whether to ban bullhooks—weapons that resemble a fireplace poker with a sharp hook on one end, which circus handlers use to beat and intimidate elephants—I wanted to pass along the letter that Emmy Award–winning actor and comedian Lily Tomlin has just sent at the 11^th hour on PETA’s behalf to City Council President Rebecca Kaplan.

In the letter, which you can read below, Tomlin thanks Kaplan for her work for the LGBT community and urgently seeks her support for the ban—a hot-button issue in Oakland’s political scene.

“From one compassionate person to another, I urge you to see through the smoke screens and realize that at the heart of the issue is morality and compassion for another species,” Tomlin writes.

A slew of other celebrities—including Oakland native Davey Havok and former Raiders player David Carter—have also joined PETA (whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”) in appeals to the City Council.