Written by Jeff Mackey
As President Obama hits the road, he's finding himself dogged by an elephant. PETA is asking Mr. Obama to direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to start confiscating these abused animals, who are so cruelly trained and treated by Ringling Bros. and other circuses.
In fact, in the circus, abuse is the norm. Handlers frequently embed the sharp end of a bullhook into the soft tissue behind elephants' ears and knees and under their chins. The USDA has the ability and the responsibility to seize suffering animals, and yet the agency allows them to travel up to 50 weeks a year in cramped and filthy boxcars and trailers, to be kept in shackles, and to be beaten. Even lame elephants are forced to stand with all their weight pressing on their hind legs and to perform tricks that can only be painful.
PETA's complaints against Ringling Bros.—filed over several years—regarding beatings and the death of elephants, including one particular baby among several who succumbed during training, resulted in the largest fine in circus history. But while fining Ringling Bros. and then Cole Bros. circuses is a good step in the right direction, it is only small step, and it does nothing to abate the horrors that elephants are enduring right now. The USDA must use its powers of confiscation and remove from abuse the dozens of elephants who are still suffering in circuses. That's why PETA is appealing directly to the president.
Please take a minute of your time to weigh in regarding these suffering elephants and push for them to get the retirement they deserve. Please use this form to urge President Obama to order the USDA to confiscate all ailing animals from Ringling and other circuses now. And, if Ringling or another circus is coming to your town, please contact us, and we’ll give you all the information and materials that you need to convince people to stay away.
Written by Michelle Kretzer
"As a lifelong Democrat, I never thought I'd lead an effort to defend the symbol of the Republican Party," writes Alec Baldwin in a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Baldwin is sending Vilsack the video he hosted for PETA exposing Ringling Bros.' abuse of animals and asking the USDA to take action.
Despite the fact that many states and cities have animal protection laws in place that prohibit abuse such as beating animals with steel-tipped bullhooks, forcing crippled animals to work, or keeping animals in chains, state and local laws often go unenforced, and circuses like Ringling continue their cruel business as usual. But the USDA has the power to change that.
Local laws designed to protect these animals are not being enforced because the circus skirts authorities or uses its financial clout to get them to look the other way," wrote Alec. "That's why I am writing to you and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to step up and enforce the Animal Welfare Act.
Under the Animal Welfare Act, the USDA has the power to seize all of Ringling's arthritic elephants who are forced to perform, meaning that these animals, who are beaten day after day to make them to perform painful stunts, could then be retired to sanctuaries. It would be another positive step for the USDA to take toward protecting animals from cruelty, after last year's landmark $270,000 fine levied against Ringling for animal welfare violations.
Join Alec in asking the USDA to step up in behalf of elephants once again.
Poignant words on when animals die, sticking it to Ringling and its torture sticks, and a treat for extreme couponers: It's everything you might have missed this week.
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Written by PETA
We've developed some pretty thick skin about having our ads rejected, but this one left us feeling like we were, well, run over by a bus. The Paradise Valley Unified School District in Phoenix is selling ad space on its school buses to raise funds. Since Ringling Bros. inundates the schools with pro-circus propaganda, we thought it would only be fair if students were allowed to make an informed choice about whether to support the circus, so we offered to pay to place our baby-elephant training ad on the buses.
But the school district turned its nose up at our money, calling the ad "unsuitable." I guess tearing baby elephants away from their mothers, slamming them to the ground, and jabbing them with bullhooks is much more suitable.
Use our sharing options to spread the word about Ringling's elephant abuse.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
It's happened again. After forking over a couple hundred dollars for tickets to a Ringling Bros. Circus performance in Everett, Washington, a lovely family had a change of heart after talking to PETA demonstrators outside the arena. Rather than watching trainers whip tigers and smack elephants with bullhooks, the entire family decided that it was worth it to sacrifice the money! (The venue refused to give them a refund.) Gotta love 'em.
If the circus is coming to your town, remember that leafleting can and does change minds. Contact us and we'll help you convince people never to buy tickets!
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
There's nothing to celebrate about how elephants are treated in the circus: They are constantly beaten with sharp bullhooks, electro-shocked, whipped, and kept chained for days on end. But we can honor these beleaguered animals by speaking out and using our materials—from comic books to videos—to spread the word far and wide in order to get others to avoid circuses that use animals.
June 24 is "Remember an Elephant" Day. Tie a string around your finger and wear it all day. When people ask what the string is for, tell them about how elephant babies are taken away from their loving mothers and "broken" by being tied down by all four legs and beaten. Remind your friends, family, and coworkers that every ticket bought to a circus that uses animals perpetuates that cruelty. Show our video to someone with kids, and encourage him or her to join you in remembering elephants on this special day.
Elephants never forget, but people quickly do. Head over to Facebook to RSVP for the event, and don't forget to check out our cool new T-shirts and other good stuff that will help you educate others all year long!
The following is a guest post from blogger and former Ringling clown André du Broc
I've spent much of my life in careers centered around making others happy. As an actor, I believed that my first responsibility was to the audience. They needed to be delighted and engaged by everything that I did on stage. This was particularly true of my time as a circus clown. If an audience's joy depended on my dropping my pants, I dropped my pants. If it meant taking a pie in the face three times a day, so be it. Many may have thought that these actions were undignified. I saw it as doing my job well. It brought me great satisfaction to see families sitting together in a crowded stadium and smiling from ear to ear.
Every Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show begins with the ringmaster's announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Children of all ages!"
I love that thought. From the beginning of the show, the audience is told to leave adulthood at the door. Be a kid again. Laugh. Smile. Enjoy!
The veneer of the circus was everything I desired in a career. It was a chance to make masses of people happy, a chance to travel all over, and an opportunity to take my silliness very seriously. What I found backstage, however, was very different. My goal is not to write an exposé of everything that happened backstage at Ringling. My former work as a circus clown has carried me far and opened a lot of doors for me over the years, and for that I am very grateful. But there was a world behind the curtain that I was not equipped to handle.
Audiences come to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth ("Big Bertha" to circus folks) primarily to see two things—clowns and elephants.
I spent most of my time with the elephants. In Tampa, I had a roommate who was an elephant trainer for a local zoo, so I had a deep fondness for these massive animals. If you look into the eyes of an elephant, you can't help but remark at their soulfulness. They are filled with expression. When an elephant is happy, you can tell at a glance. Back in Tampa, when the elephants were allowed to play in the water, their eyes would twinkle, their bodies would waddle, and their trunks would curl up, pulling their large mouths into an unmistakable smile. They looked like they were having fun. They were happy.
I never saw the elephants in the circus make that face. They looked tired, weary, frustrated, angry, and so very sad. I stopped one of the assistant elephant handlers to ask why a particular elephant had tears pouring down the sides of her face. He laughed, "'Cause she's a bitch and the bitch got what was coming to her." He then pointed to the welt on the side of his face from where she had slapped him with her trunk. He then showed me his bullhook, a 2-foot-long stick with a metal hook on the end that is used to train elephants. "I gave her about 10 good whacks across her skull. Bam! Bam! Bam!" he demonstrated. "Bitch'll think twice before she messes with me." This brutal assistant handler had never received any formal training in dealing with elephants. His job was simply to keep them fed, watered, and in line.
I remember that there was always a bullhook in the corner of the apartment back in Tampa. The metal hook had a blunt, rounded tip. My roommate had explained that it was used to hook the inside of where the mouth and trunk met. You give it a slight tug and the elephant will move in that direction. I witnessed many of the Ringling trainers sitting in circles, sharpening their bullhooks to dangerous points. They wanted the elephants to fear them, and the best way to do that was to inflict as much pain as possible.
Each of these great animals were looking at a lifetime of being chained to a wall, beaten, and marched out briefly to perform. Unlike those I left in Tampa, they would never roll in the grass or enjoy playing in the water.
The largest of the elephants, King Tusk, had a particularly sad story. When he first came to Ringling from another circus in 1986, he was the largest traveling land mammal alive. At 42 years old, weighing 14,762 pounds, standing 12 feet 6 inches tall, and sporting a length of 27 feet, King Tusk (Tommy) was a spectacular being. In the wild, elephants are constantly rubbing down their tusks to reduce the weight carried by their head. Tommy, however, had been prohibited from doing so for 42 years, and this had allowed his tusks to grow unacceptably long. In fact, where cracks would form along the tusk, metal bands were installed to keep them from breaking. His tusks were more than 7 feet long and put enormous weight and strain on his back. He had arthritis in his neck and back, and by the time I joined the circus in 1992, he could no longer perform any tricks.
Instead of retiring this great elephant with dignity and shaving down his tusks so that he could live out his remaining years in comfort, Ringling would have him simply stand in the center ring while two acrobats performed on his back.
Tommy was finally transferred to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in 1998 after spending 51 years of his life performing in circuses. According to Two Tails Ranch's records, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium sent him to live out his remaining years at their elephant facility in Florida, where at 57 years of age he was finally euthanized just before Christmas in 2002.
I am grateful for the experiences that I had in the circus. I learned about who I am as a person, an entertainer, and a clown. I learned so much and had amazing, exciting, and terrific experiences. Most importantly, I learned what dignity means. I filled my steamer trunk with plenty of it as I rolled it out of Clown Alley and away from the Big Top forever.
I will not go to a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show or any other Feld Entertainment production ever again.
Tommy would have wanted it that way.
André du Broc graduated from Clown College in the fall of 1992 and went on the road with Ringling's blue unit in late October. He left the circus about a month later because he could no longer bear to witness the horrific treatment and living conditions of the animals. André maintains a blog at toomanycookies.wordpress.com.
Notorious animal abusers might rethink a visit to Norfolk, Virginia—home of the world's largest animal rights organization (PETA!). When Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus rolls its elephant-beating act into town, our Norfolk office holds a lively and unmissable protest to make it known that the animal circus isn't welcome here—or anywhere! Check out yesterday's great turnout from PETA's opening-night demo. We'll be at every show to cheer the plummeting attendance figures. Please take a second to speak up for the animals who suffer for the saddest show on earth by urging the USDA to revoke Ringling's exhibitor license.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
I got teary again and again watching Jennie Garth's character, Kelly Taylor, grow up on Beverly Hills, 90210—and I got goose bumps when she mamboed on Dancing With the Stars. But when I learned that Jennie asked MomCentral.com to drop its partnership with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, I cheered so loudly that I woke Frank and Tom from their fifth nap of the day. (Sorry, fellas.)
The mother of three was moved to take action after learning about Ringling's abuse of baby elephants, who are snatched away from their wailing, distraught mothers by trainers who slam the babies to the ground, poke and prod them with bullhooks, and give them electric shocks. Asking the site to sever its ties with Ringling, Jennie wrote, "Because Mom Central is a resource that promotes support for all mothers, I implore you to consider the helpless animals who are forced to surrender their children to a lifetime of isolation and pain."
You don't need to have children to be concerned about the dangerous lesson Ringling teaches its audiences—that it's OK to abuse babies who've been stolen from their mothers. I'll be following Jennie's lead and politely asking MomCentral.com to drop Ringling. Will you join me?
Written by Karin Bennett
Yesterday, Ringling announced that it had euthanized Lima, the 12-year-old zebra who ran amok for 40 minutes in Atlanta after he escaped from the circus last month. According to a statement released by the circus, numerous medical treatments failed to repair the damage to the zebra's hooves.
Shortly after Lima escaped, PETA called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ensure that Lima be provided adequate veterinary care for his injuries and to remove all zebras from Ringling's traveling shows. Now we're hoping that the tragedy of Lima's death moves officials to end the exploitation of all zebras in circuses.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that time after time animals in circuses try to make a break for freedom. While we mourn Lima's traumatic and painful ordeal, we are thankful that he will no longer be forced to endure a life of constant confinement, in fear of being beaten to perform unnatural tricks. Help stop the suffering of animals abused by Ringling by urging everyone you know to forgo circuses that use animals.
Written by Logan Scherer
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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