Written by Jennifer OConnor
Great news: After more than a year of pressure from PETA, the Animal Protection and Rescue League, Animal Defenders International (ADI), and celebrities—including Charo and Switched at Birth star Constance Marie—the Santa Ana Zoo in California has announced that it will discontinue cruel and dangerous elephant rides.
This is a big deal for the elephants, who are dominated and controlled by bullhooks—barbaric training devices that resemble a fireplace poker—as can be seen in video footage from ADI that shows that trainers from Have Trunk Will Travel, the company that provided elephant rides for the zoo, beat and shocked elephants into submission. When not working, the elephants spend much of their time chained by two legs, barely able to take a step forward or backward.
Elephants are highly intelligent, social, and curious animals who deserve better than being forced to plod along in circles all day while being prodded by a bullhook for people's amusement. Elephants who are subjected to the constant threat of physical punishment—like those who provided rides at the zoo—are also more prone to dangerous and unpredictable behavior and present an unnecessary safety risk to the public.
Please click here to send a thank-you note to Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and click here to thank Gerardo Mouet, the executive director of the city's Parks, Recreation and Community Services Agency, for making the compassionate decision to end the elephant rides. Be sure to add a P.S. to Mr. Mouet to ask him to make the same decision for the Orange County Fair since Have Trunk Will Travel provides the rides there, too, and Mouet is on the fair's board.
Written by PETA
In light of the new policy issued by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) that will minimize contact with elephants as well as the use of bullhooks in AZA-accredited zoos, PETA is renewing our call to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to make protected contact a requirement for circuses, traveling shows, and non-AZA facilities.
With protected contact, there is always a barrier between handlers and elephants, which is not only more humane but also much safer for both species. Bullhooks—heavy batons with a sharp metal hook on the end—are never used to beat elephants into compliance.
OSHA—whose mandate is to protect workers—has acknowledged that "the issue of workers exposed to large animals [is] a serious occupational health and safety concern," but the agency nevertheless rejected PETA's previous call to require that captive elephants be managed in the protected-contact system.
Even if OSHA doesn't act, the AZA's policy should put an end to dangerous practices like the elephant rides at the Santa Ana Zoo, which are provided by an outfit called "Have Trunk Will Travel" that has been caught on video beating elephants with bullhooks. But the policy doesn't fully go into effect until 2014, and elephants can't wait. Please urge Santa Ana Zoo officials to stop the cruel and dangerous rides without delay.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
Actor and mom Constance Marie has fired off a letter to Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido to ask that he put an end to the elephant rides at the Santa Ana Zoo. Constance, who stars in ABC Family's new show Switched at Birth, was sickened after watching video footage of trainers with Have Trunk Will Travel—who provide the elephants for the rides—as they beat elephants with bullhooks and shocked them with electric prods.
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Says Constance, "Every swing of the trainers' bullhooks and jab of the electric prods horrified me, and seeing a baby elephant scream in pain each time a sharp bullhook is jabbed into his mouth was simply heartbreaking."
Please add your voice to Constance Marie's by asking the mayor of Santa Ana to stop the rides once and for all.
PETA members converged on the Hollywood premiere of the new movie Zookeeper to remember Tweet, a giraffe who collapsed and died on set during the movie's production.
An elephant used in the film may also have been abused. Animal Defenders International took video footage of elephants as they were beaten and shocked by trainers at Have Trunk Will Travel, the company that provided the elephant for the movie.
Moviegoers may be surprised to learn that the presence of American Humane Association (AHA) representatives on a movie set is no guarantee that animals were not exploited, hurt, or even killed during production. AHA representatives only monitor what occurs during filming, not what happens during off-set training sessions, where abuse is most likely to occur.
Please don't reward the producers of Zookeeper—which, incidentally, is receiving scathing reviews—for exploiting animals. Don't buy a ticket.
Animal Defenders International (ADI), which released video footage of an elephant, Tai, and others being hit with bullhooks and shocked with a stun gun, has filed suit against exhibitor Have Trunk Will Travel (HTWT) for allegedly making misleading claims about how Tai was treated.
PETA Files readers may recall that HTWT is the same outfit that the Santa Ana Zoo contracts with to provide elephant rides, despite the risks to public safety and the cruelty to the elephants. (Readers can help by asking Santa Anna officials to get rid of these cruel and dangerous rides once and for all.)
Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for circuses to abuse animals and then lie about it. Ringling Bros. circus routinely touts its elephant care program, despite overwhelming evidence that elephants are beaten and chained and spend most of their lives crammed inside poorly ventilated, reeking railroad boxcars.
If you've ever bought a ticket to a circus believing that the elephants are treated well, you may have grounds for seeking redress. Please contact PETA for more information.
Despite being informed about the cruelty of hauling elephants around in tractor trailers and "controlling" them with bullhooks, California's Orange County Fair is going ahead with plans to offer elephant rides provided by an outfit called "Have Trunk Will Travel" (HTWT). HTWT is the same exhibitor that was caught on tape hitting elephants with bullhooks and shocking them with electric prods. The fair's contract with HTWT allows it to cancel the rides for this year's fair by this Thursday (tomorrow), so please send a message today to fair officials urging them to do so. Be sure to add that you hope that they eliminate these cruel and dangerous rides permanently.
You didn't think Joan Jett would rest on her laurels after personally delivering an anti–seal slaughter letter to the Norwegian government earlier this week, did you? The rock icon has now set her sights on the San Diego County Fair, which is offering elephant rides from Have Trunk Will Travel (HTWT)—a name synonymous with cruelty to animals—at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, where Jett is scheduled to appear later this month. Jett dashed off a letter to fair organizers on PETA's behalf urging them to send HTWT packing.
I've seen the video footage released by Animal Defenders International that shows the owners and trainers with HTWT as they hit elephants as hard as they can with bullhooks and use electric shocks on the animals' bellies," writes Jett in her letter. "You can hear a grown elephant who bellows in pain and a baby who cries out while being jabbed repeatedly in the mouth and hit over the head. Please don't allow the reputation of the fair to be tarnished by its support of cruel elephant rides.
You can help by joining Joan Jett in urging the San Diego Fair to abandon its plans to offer cruel and dangerous elephant rides.
Written by Alisa Mullins
Video footage just released by Animal Defenders International shows trainers with Have Trunk Will Travel—the company that provides elephants for rides at the Santa Ana Zoo—as they strike elephants with sharp metal-tipped bullhooks and shock them with electric prods. PETA has filed multiple complaints against this exhibitor, and we've repeatedly urged Santa Ana officials to end the rides. But so far, the zoo has refused.
The owners of Have Trunk Will Travel—which rents out elephants for movies and commercials and uses elephants in any other way that can make a buck—have defended using bullhooks, which can leave painful welts, abscesses, and puncture wounds, and have indicated that electric prods are a useful training "tool." Elephants who would never do headstands or balance on pedestals—if given a choice—quickly learn to obey or suffer the painful consequences.
Please tell Santa Ana officials to stop supporting abuse like that seen on the video by discontinuing dangerous and cruel elephant rides.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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