Written by Gretchen Primack … a powerful poem on circus elephants.
Please! Don’t go to Ringling – or any wild animal circus!
– R. T.
*******
Maybe someday you will trick
for me.
Maybe I will find value in you
on one foot.
I will take you from family,
home,
so I can watch you
balance.
Will you bore me? I bore myself
now, reduced
to your conditions, cut off
from my life
and language. None of me
is left; still
you found something
to waste.
Lately, I’ve been regretting not having kids. Here is one of my spare bedrooms – unconsciously kid friendly when I put it together. … cuz ya never know – foster care is always an option. I couldn’t afford $$ a nice head-board for the bed, so I made one with my three 1960s-flower “paintings” smooshed together. Then I decorated the wall with my First Communion dress (gently washed) and the teen acoustic guitar my late, great mom bought for me years ago. Then there’s the pony and MADELINE book …
I would never take my kid to circuses with wild animals. Even though Ringling is pulling the wool over some local reporters’ eyes – parading their acrobat woman and talking elephant sanctuaries – this is what I am finding all over Worcester: these flyers (see below) TOUTING exactly what most people come to Ringling for – the wild animals.
Look at how Ringling has them degraded in the flyer I picked up today!
Dunce caps for the local reporters who stupidly fell into Ringling’s very savvy public relations/publicity campaign!
– Rosalie Tirella
Archele Hundley, a former Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus employee, recently teamed up with PETA to make a moving plea to potential circusgoers.
Hundley, who witnessed elephant beatings during her time with Ringling, urges people to stay away from the circus.
“I saw handlers deliver a beating … for 30 minutes. She was covered with bloody wounds. I’ll never forget her agonizing screams,” says Hundley. “Please, never take your children to a Ringling Bros. circus.”
Hundley worked on Ringling’s animal crew for two months.
During that time, she witnessed incidents of abuse, including the following:
In 2006 an elephant in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was beaten with bullhooks so severely that she bled profusely and cried out in pain. A trainer viciously whipped a camel and punched a miniature horse in the face.
Trainers jabbed horses with pitchforks and gave them extremely painful “lip twists” to force the animals to obey commands.
An elephant with painful arthritis was kept on the road.
“The abuse was not just once in a while—it occurred every day,” says Hundley.
She continues: “The elephants, horses, and camels were hit, punched, beaten, and whipped by everyone from the head of animal care down to inexperienced animal handlers hired out of homeless shelters.”
Archele says that she repeatedly complained to circus management about the abuse but to no avail, prompting her to quit in disgust.
Archele teamed up with PETA because she wanted others to learn about the cruelty involved when animals are forced to perform in circuses.
You can help spread the message by boycotting the circus and telling everyone you know about circus cruelty.
The Telegram and Gazette has it wrong! … PLEASE! Never go to circuses that feature wild animals like elephants, tigers, lions, bears and chimps! … This article gets us all thinking … – R. Tirella
The tragedy of Tyke continues
By Jennifer O’Connor
It’s human nature to recall in vivid detail what you were doing when shocking news broke. I was at my kitchen sink, with a small television on the counter broadcasting the news, when the story broke that Tyke, an elephant used in a traveling circus, had been gunned down on the streets of Honolulu. A full glass of water shattered on my floor as I watched the video footage in horror. It was August 20, 1994.
Police pumped 86 bullets into Tyke. This screaming elephant, covered with blood, her eyes the size of dinner plates, died in abject terror and agonizing pain. Why?
After years of chains and beatings, Tyke had snapped.
She crushed her trainer and escaped the arena into the streets of downtown Honolulu, where she charged pedestrians and smashed vehicles before finally being killed.
As devastating as her death was, there’s at least comfort in knowing that her suffering is over. The same cannot be said of the dozens of other elephants who are still being used and abused in circuses two decades after Tyke’s death.
Despite the vast amount of empirical evidence of elephants’ intelligence and emotional complexity uncovered in the last 20 years, circuses still exploit these animals as if they were nothing more than wind-up toys. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus forcibly removes baby elephants from their frantic mothers, ties them down with ropes by all four legs, threatens them with bullhooks and shocks them with electric prods to break their spirits and make them perform tricks.
Conditioned from infancy to obey commands or face the painful consequences, these dejected youngsters go through their days with no hope, no relief and no joy.
Elephants would never perform grotesquely atypical types of behavior such as headstands on command without the constant threat of punishment.
Elephants who have been captured from Asia and Africa are not uncommon here in the U.S. About half of the elephants used by Ringling, for example, were snatched from the wild and will never set foot in it again.
Elephants truly never do forget. Their memories are extraordinary.
Elephants who were torn away from their homes and families must spend the interminable hours during which they plod in circles giving rides, pace back and forth in zoo displays or perform in circus shows dreaming of the vast savannas and lush jungles left behind.
But they will never again experience the culture and challenges of their rightful homelands. Their lives consist of loneliness and pain, bullhooks and chains.
And being born in captivity doesn’t fool elephants into believing that that’s where they belong — they know they’re missing everything that’s critical to who they are. Genetic imperatives don’t disappear just because an animal isn’t where he or she is supposed to be.
Nearly all captive elephants develop neurotic behavior, such as constantly swaying or bobbing their heads in a futile attempt to cope.
Instead of walking many miles every day, seeking out friends and visiting favorite watering holes, elephants in circuses are chained by the leg, barely able to take a single step forward or back. Most die far short of their expected life spans.
Those who want to pay homage to Tyke and all the elephants who have suffered and died in captivity will continue to turn their backs on animal circuses and other elephant exploiters.
There was a fear that only big cats and elephants would be banned [PA]
There were fears that only big cats and elephants would be banned from travelling circuses after MPs’ recommendations early this summer.
But now there has been confirmation from Government ministers that a ban on the use of all wild animals in circuses in England will go ahead by the end of 2015.
Many leading charities and animal welfare organisations such as the RSPCA, Born Free Foundation, the British Veterinary Association and the Captive Animals’ Protection Society have campaigned together against wild animals being used in circuses.
The RSPCA has been particularly outspoken, warning that wild animals are likely to suffer from being dragged around the country from pillar to post just so audiences can be “entertained.
RSPCA senior scientist Dr Ros Clubb said: “It is a great relief that the Government has listened to reason and we are back on track to getting a proper ban on the use of all wild animals in circuses.
“As the Government has pointed out, there is absolutely no basis for protecting only a select group of wild animals, and no desire to do so from MPs, the public or animal welfare groups. No wild animals belong in a circus.
“Now we need to leap over the final hurdle and get a definite date for this legislation to be passed and end this outdated practise.
“Animals have already been waiting too long and another two years is still a long time to endure the constant travel, cramped temporary cages, and noisy conditions of a circus. The licensing scheme that is running in the meantime is not good enough to safeguard the welfare of these majestic animals.”
The RSPCA and Born Free Foundation have offered to help Defra and circus owners re-home the wild animals currently being used in circuses. …
To read more, click on the InCity Times circus Facebook page to the right, above, under the tethered elephant!
By Jennifer O’Connor
The trend is undeniable: The days of hauling animals around and hurting them in the name of entertainment are quickly coming to an end. Winnipeg is the latest municipality to slam the door shut on circuses using exotic animals. Mayor Sam Katz and the Winnipeg City Council made it clear that they will no longer tolerate circus cruelty.
All around the world, cities and entire countries are banning exotic-animal circus acts. Austria, Bolivia, Colombia, Greece, Paraguay and Peru have done so already, and others, including Britain and Scotland, are on the verge of doing so. Besides outright bans, many cities are saying no to the tools that circuses use to inflict pain, such as the bullhook—a heavy baton with a sharp metal hook on the end that can rip and tear elephants’ skin—and electric prods. Since circuses control animals with these cruel devices—or more accurately, attempt to control them, since so many have run amok—such prohibitions effectively keep the animals out.
Only a decade or so ago, the fabulous Cirque du Soleil was one of the few alternative circuses around. But the demand for cruelty-free entertainment has skyrocketed, and now there are more than a dozen vibrant, innovative productions touring North America that don’t exploit animals. Even consummate huckster P.T. Barnum couldn’t convince today’s informed public that beating animals and keeping them in cages and chains from birth to death is acceptable.
The empirical evidence of what life is like for animals in circuses is undeniable and readily available to the public. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, for example, paid a record $270,000 to settle multiple violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. At least 30 elephants have died while in Ringling’s hands since 1992.
Former employees of Ringling have come forward to report egregious abuses, including forcibly removing baby elephants from their frantic mothers, tying them down by all four legs, and slamming them to the ground, surrounded by “trainers” wielding bullhooks and electric hotshots.
An undercover investigator videotaped a Carson & Barnes elephant trainer who was viciously attacking elephants with a bullhook and shocking them with electric prods. The elephants screamed in agony while recoiling from the assaults. The trainer can be heard instructing his students to sink the weapons into the elephants’ flesh and twist them until the elephants scream in pain.
Despite being ordered to pay a $7,500 penalty to settle nearly three dozen charges of violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, the Liebel Family Circus continues to drag around an elephant named Nosey, even though she is suffering from a chronic skin condition. The Piccadilly Circus was given an official warning by federal authorities about its animal-handling practices. The Kelly Miller Circus has been cited for denying adequate veterinary care to an elephant with a painful, oozing puncture wound on her ear, among other abuses.
The facts are simple and stark: Animals in circuses suffer tremendously. Every parent or grandparent who buys a ticket is contributing directly to the animals’ misery. Every child who exits a show believing that hurting animals is “fun” leaves a bit of his or her heart behind. Our elected officials should enact additional laws that put a stop to an outmoded form of “entertainment” that has no place in a civilized society.
… attend their open house. They are here! BOYCOTT Ringling! No validation from city leaders – cheap FREE publicity for Ringling!
We know it is an election year but, please, city councilors let Ringling know wild animals have no business being in a circus or any traveling show! In Worcester or anywhere in America! – R. Tirella
LEARN MORE!
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is coming to our town, yet again! What a shame!
By Deb Young
Now and until early next year, trucks or train box cars filled with chained Barnum & Bailey Circus animal “performers” are rolling into cities across the country.
Should parents take their children to the circus?
While going to the circus may be a favorite pastime for many adults, animal abuse allegations have led many parents to squirm at the thought of taking their children.
Although some children dream of running away to join the circus, it is a safe bet that most animals forced to perform in circuses dream of running away from the circus.
In contrast to the glitter associated with circuses, performing animals’ lives are pretty miserable.
When the elephants, monkeys, big cats, and other circus animals aren’t imprisoned in trucks and trains for upwards of 26 hours at a time, these members of the animal kingdom are doing the tricks taught by torture. “Torture’ isn’t hyperbole – it’s the truest word for the electric shocks, beatings, and lifetimes of pervasive neglect exhaustively documented by reports,investigations, photos, videos and personal accounts.
Bears, elephants, tigers, and other animals do not voluntarily ride bicycles, stand on their heads, balance on balls, or jump through rings of fire. They don’t perform these and other difficult tricks because they want to; they perform them because they’re afraid of what will happen if they don’t.
For animals in circuses, there is no such thing as “positive reinforcement”—only varying degrees of punishment and deprivation. To force them to perform these meaningless and physically uncomfortable tricks, trainers use whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks, and other painful tools of the trade.
In the Ringling Bros. circus, elephants are beaten, hit, poked, prodded, and jabbed with sharp hooks, sometimes until bloody. Ringling breaks the spirit of elephants when they’re vulnerable babies who should still be with their mothers. Unsuspecting parents planning a family trip to the circus don’t know about the violent training sessions with ropes, bullhooks, and electric shock prods that elephants endure. Heartbreaking photos reveal how Ringling Bros. circus trainers cruelly force baby elephants to learn tricks, and it’s not through a reward system, as they claim.
Former Ringling Bros. employees have reported that elephants are routinely abused and violently beaten with bullhooks. Archele Hundley, who was an animal trainer with Ringling Bros., says that she worked with the company for three months and quit after she allegedly saw a handler ram a bullhook into an elephant’s ear for refusing to lie down. Ringling Bros. “believes that if they can keep these animals afraid, they can keep them submissive,” Hundley said. “This is how they train their employees to handle these animals.”
Circuses easily get away with routine abuse because no government agency monitors training sessions. Undercover video footage of animal training sessions has shown that elephants are beaten with bullhooks and shocked with electric prods, big cats are dragged by heavy chains around their necks and hit with sticks, bears are whacked and prodded with long poles, and chimpanzees are kicked and hit with riding crops.Trainers drug some animals to make them “manageable” and surgically remove the teeth and claws of others.
Constant travel means that animals are confined to boxcars, trailers, or trucks for days at a time in extremely hot and cold weather, often without access to basic necessities such as food, water, and veterinary care. Elephants, big cats, bears, and primates are confined to cramped and filthy cages in which they eat, drink, sleep, defecate, and urinate—all in the same place.
Circuses are cruel. Those animals are on the road constantly, living in tiny cages, and whipped into submission. It sends a terrible message to our children. Elephants and tigers are in peril worldwide and we should be teaching our children to respect these animals, rather than sending them a message that it is OK to “train” these animals to do silly tricks. And animal-free circuses are so much entertaining and higher-minded anyway!
Ringling Bros boasts that its three units travel more than 25,000 miles as the circus tours the country for 11 months each year. Ringling’s own documents reveal that on average, elephants are chained for more than 26 hours straight and are sometimes continually chained for as many as 60 to 100 hours. Tigers and lions usually live and travel in cages that provide barely enough room for the animals to turn around, often with two big cats crammed into a single cage. In July 2004, Clyde, a young lion traveling with Ringling, died in a poorly ventilated boxcar while the circus was crossing the Mojave Desert, where temperatures reached at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Clyde likely died a miserable death from heatstroke and dehydration. Previously, two tigers with Ringling injured themselves while attempting to escape from their cages in an overheated boxcar.
Elephants can live up to 70 years in the wild , but when forced to perform for Ringling, they live to be on average , only 39 years old.
Approximately 18 Elephants are suffering on the road with Ringling right now.
21 months old is the average age a baby elephant is taken away from his/her mother and begin cruel training.
Ringlings death toll from 1993 to 2012 was 30 elephants.
Elephants often suffer from large abbesses, tuberculosis,depression and aggression after being denied the opportunity to follow their natural instincts.
Ringling has paid the USDA 270,000 for animal welfare violations, the largest fine ever paid by an animal exhibitor.
During the off-season, animals used in circuses may be housed in traveling crates or barn stalls— some are even kept in trucks. Such interminable confinement has harmful physical and psychological effects on animals. These effects are often indicated by unnatural forms of behavior such as repeated head-bobbing, swaying, and pacing.
These intelligent captive animals sometimes snap under the pressure of constant abuse. Others make their feelings abundantly clear when they get a chance. Flora, an elephant who had been forced to perform in a circus and was later moved to the Miami Zoo, attacked and severely injured a zookeeper in front of visitors. As Florida police officer Blayne Doyle—who shot 47 rounds into Janet, an elephant who ran amok with three children on her back at the Great American Circus in Palm Bay—noted, “I think these elephants are trying to tell us that zoos and circuses are not what God created them for … but we have not been listening.”
In more than 35 dangerous incidents since 2000, elephants have bolted from circuses, run amok through streets, crashed into buildings, attacked members of the public, and killed and injured handlers.
In speaking before members of Congress about the dangers of elephant rampages, Doyle lamented, “I have discovered, much to my alarm, that once an elephant goes out of control, nothing can be done. It is not a predictable or preventable accident. The only thing that can be done—and even this is a danger to the public—is to get a battery of police officers in with heavy weapons and gun the elephant down.”
Here are 11 quick and straight facts about the circus that many don’t know.
1. Circus animals have the right to be protected and treated humanely under the Animal Welfare Act.
2. Tigers naturally fear fire but they are still forced to jump through fire hoops in some circuses.
3. Less than 100 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors are assigned to monitor the 12,000 circus-related facilities in America.
4. Trainers use whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks, and other painful tools of the trade to force animals to perform.
5. In more than 35 dangerous incidents since 2000, elephants have bolted from circuses, run amok through streets, crashed into buildings, attacked members of the public, and killed and injured handlers.
6. Every major circus that uses animals has been cited for violating the minimal standards of care set forth in the United States Animal Welfare Act.
7. On average, circuses travel about 48 weeks per year.
8. Virtually 96 percent of a circus animal’s life is spent in chains or cages.
9. Since 1990, there have been over 123 cases of lion attacks.
10. Repetitive and often destructive behaviors such as obsessive swaying, bobbing, chewing, sucking, weaving, rocking, and licking are common in circus animals, and are manifestations of their extreme stress and boredom.
11. Because of their forced immobility, circus animals may develop arthritis or other joint problems.
What can we do?
When the circus comes to town, organize a demonstration to inform the public that demeaning stunts performed by animals in the ring are the result of behind-the-scenes bullhook beatings and other abusive training methods. Let your local news outlet know about the suffering of animals used in circuses.
Start a campaign to amend the cruelty-to-animals ordinance in our community so that it includes language forbidding the use of bullhooks and other manual, mechanical, and chemical devices intended to cause pain and suffering.
Most importantly, boycott all circuses that use animals.
As more people become aware of the cruelty involved in forcing animals to perform, circuses that use animals are finding fewer places to set up their big tops. The use of animals in entertainment has already been restricted or banned in cities across the U.S. and in countries worldwide.
Circuses that feature only human performers are gaining in popularity and provide dazzling, humane, and truly family-friendly entertainment.
If you don’t find animal cruelty entertaining, or don’t believe seeing elephants doing curtsies teaches kids anything positive, you’re in good – and kind – company.
So why not boycott the big top and celebrate life with animals and fellow animal lovers instead?
… Check out these recent letters to our city council members from people who do not understand exotic animals and are insensitive to their plight (in circuses). Stay strong, Woo councilors. Don’t let these ill-informed people sway you. They could be on Barnum and Bailey’s payroll. At best, they are totally misinformed.
NOTE: Both letter writers are from Connecticut! Not even from Massachusetts – let alone Worcester!
ICT readers, please call/email these people and EDUCATE them! Thank you! – R. Tirella
# 1 LETTER TO THE WORCESTER CITY COUNCIL
PETA’S ‘ INJURED ELEPHANT’ TO CONFRONT POTENTIAL CIRCUS GOERS IN WORCESTER!
What: An “injured elephant” will lead PETA protesters on Wednesday as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus prepares for its opening show in Worcester. The protesters will display signs that read, “This Is Ringling Baby-Elephant Training,” alongside banners emblazoned with compelling photos taken inside Ringling’s training center. The photos expose how baby elephants used by Ringling are stretched out, slammed to the ground, gouged with steel-tipped bull hooks, and shocked with electric prods. These abusive sessions go on for several hours a day in order to force the baby elephants to learn to perform circus tricks out of fear of punishment. Actor Alec Baldwin recently narrated avideo exposé that focuses on how circuses abuse elephants.
“Worcester residents would run screaming from the big top if they knew how baby elephants are violently forced to perform difficult, confusing, and sometimes painful tricks,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Delcianna Winders. “Since children love animals, the last place that parents and grandparents should take them to is the circus.”
Late last year, Ringling Bros. paid the largest fine in circus history—$270,000—for violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
Where: DCU Center, at the intersection of Major Taylor Boulevard and Foster Street, Worcester
When: Wednesday, October 3, 12 noon
For more info, call or email, David Perle at 202-483-7382, extension 2194, orDavidP@peta.org.
For more information, please visit PETA’s website RinglingBeatsAnimals.com.
from the editor: Here’s a message from our animal rights pals. To learn everything you need to know about circuses and their cruelty to exotic animals (lions, tigers, elephants, etc), please go to: http://www.peta.org/features/circuses-hurt-animals.aspx:
We are organizing a demonstration at Ringling Bros.’ opening-night performance in Worcester on Wednesday, October 3.
We are currently planning to hold a daytime demonstration on October 3 from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition (MARC) and local animal rights activists are planning a daytime demonstration for Saturday, October 6.
We also need volunteers to leaflet at all of Ringling’s shows in Worcester (October 3 through October 8). Organizing a demonstration is easy, and I’ll help you every step of the way!
These are the dates and times of Ringling’s performances in Worcester (the dates and times of existing demonstrations are also noted):
Wednesday, October 3—There will be a PETA demonstration from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Wednesday, October 3, 7 p.m. (opening-night performance)—We need an organizer.
Thursday, October 4, 7 p.m.—We need an organizer.
Friday, October 5, 7 p.m.—We need an organizer.
Saturday, October 6—There will be a MARC demonstration from 1 to 3:15 p.m.
Saturday, October 6, 7 p.m.—We need an organizer.
Sunday, October 7, 3 p.m.—We need an organizer.
Monday, October 8, 3 p.m.—We need an organizer.
Your presence will make a world of difference to frightened baby elephants who are cruelly bound with ropes and wrestled into confusing and physically difficult positions in order to teach them circus “tricks.” As they scream, cry, and struggle, they are stretched out, slammed to the ground, struck with bullhooks, and shocked with electric prods.
Please let me know if you can help, and I’ll be happy to send you free leaflets and/or signs so that you can get the news out to your community about the circus’s abuse. And feel free to forward this message to your friends and family!
You can contact me at AdamM@peta.org or 323-210-2210 or on Facebook. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks so much!