UniverSoul Circus to Draw Opening-Night Protest

PETA Will Urge Passersby to Avoid Cruel and Dangerous Show at All Costs

For Immediate Release:
September 4, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Detroit – Armed with signs featuring TLC’s Chilli stating, “Sad. Lonely. Beaten. UniverSoul Circus: End Animal Acts,” a group of PETA supporters will descend on UniverSoul Circus’ opening-night performance in Detroit.

When:    Thursday, September 5, 6:15 p.m.

Where:    Outside the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, at the intersection of Dubois and Atwater streets, Detroit

“Today’s public respects wildlife and has no interest in seeing miserable, abused animals performing stupid tricks,” says PETA Foundation Deputy Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Rachel Mathews. “PETA’s protesters are pushing UniverSoul to embrace an animal-free future before it follows Ringling Bros. out of business.”

Ringling Bros.—once the largest U.S. circus—shut down in 2017, citing the public’s changing attitude toward the use of animals in entertainment, as demonstrated by declining ticket sales. Kelly Miller Circus is now touring animal-free, and a growing number of states and cities across the country have banned traveling wild-animal acts.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.

For Media: Contact PETA's
Media Response Team.

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 Ingrid E. Newkirk

“Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights?” READ MORE

— Ingrid E. Newkirk, PETA President and co-author of Animalkind