Written on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 10:41pm by Brian Zabka | 24 Comments
PETA Protests the Circus
PETA members line up outside the HSBC Arena to protest Ringling Bros. treatment of animals.
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I protested and it is kind of an uncomfortable situation. As the woman in the video said, we just want to make people aware of what is going on and where they are putting their money, in case they don’t know. Once you see one of the many videos online showing what goes on behind the scenese at Ringling, you can’t really argue with the fact that it is animal abuse. If you are OK with that then fine, but many people don’t even know it happens. In February Ringling was taken to federal court over violating the Endangered Species Act, so obviously “animal advocates” aren’t imaging this stuff. I was not there to ruin anyone’s night and even though I had a few nasty comments directed at me, I didn’t talk to anyone. If even one person thinks twice about giving their money to Ringling next time and finds another way to entertain their children then it’s worth it.
I think that how Ringling Bros. treats their animals is horrible. There is no excuse for that and it is unacceptable. I hope that through educating people of the horrors of this circus that they can begin to understand what these animals are going through. I believe in Karma and the abusers will one day get theirs.
Our entertainment should not have to come at the price of CRUELTY to animals. I’d like to think the human race is better than that. Elephants are beautiful, intelligent animals—Why wouldn’t you be outraged if you learned they are mistreated?? Would you accept it if the circus was full of mistreated dogs or cats? Money speaks louder than our words–Don’t support circuses!!
For those brave activists willing to educate people: “Speak up, even if your voice shakes”
Sometimes the people with nasty comments are the most affected by your message. There is no reason to support cruelty and they know it. You make them question themselves, and that’s uncomfortable. Keep at it!
Unfortunately, many people do not know who how brutal elephants and bears and other animals are treated in the Circus. During the show, everyone is smiling and happy. The animals seem like they are enjoying themselves wth their trainers and having fun as well. This is the image that Ringling wants us to see. However, there is a dark side to the Ringling circus. The Asian elephants are chained for 19 hours a day where they can only lean forward and stand in their own urine. The bears have it just as bad and are kept in tiny cages, hardly having enough room to even turn around. These animals do become neurotic and it is evidenced in undercover video footage taken by many animal welfare agencies. Signs of neurtic behavior (going mad) are elephants and bears swaying their heads back and forth. All of this is documented and can be viewed at the website http://www.circuses.com. When not in their prisons or bonded to heavy chains, they are being trained with the most cruel methods imaginable. Elephants are violently struck with a long handle with a sharp hook on the end. This is called a bullhook, and it tears into the senstive skin of the elephant. The beatings are violently repeated until the elephant does the trick its trainer wants to be performed. Even after the training session, the trainers continue to beat the elephant with the bullhook to “keep them in line.” There is no special bond between a trainer and an elephant as Ringling would want you to believe. There is only pain and suffering between a slave holder and slave. The bears do not have it any better. They are struck as well so they can peform tricks. But for a bear to jump through a hula hoop takes special effort. So the trainers burn the bottom of the bears feet so they jump. This is the kind of suffering we indeed support if we go to the circus. This is not about tradition. As Albert Schweitzer once said, “The thinking person]must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another…
–Albert Schweitzer Tracy Murphy
Thank you Tracy for sharing this with me and others. Awareness is the birth of action and I think more needs to be done to end animal abuse. Animal free circuses are the only option. I will post this video on my website, http://mollyokeeffe.com/
I was among the demontrators this weekend protesting the arrival and performance of Ringling Brothers in Buffalo’s HSBC Arena. It is where the money is. Almost three years ago Animal Advocates of WNY lobbied the Buffalo Common Council to pass a resolution banning all animal acts within the City of Buffalo. As a proud member of Animal advocates I felt it my duty to the organization and of course the animals to attend and muster my support during the hearing. My friend Jennifer spoke for well over an hour delivering factual unbais information about the cruelty not only with Ringling Brothers but that which is inherent in ALL animal-based circuses. She answered trulyfully every question throw at her from council members. She dodged NO questions. The results were as follows: All council members were present. At the closing of the session the council appeared to be interested at what Jennifer had said. Oh, I forgot to mention. A representative of Ringling Brothers showed up halfway through the session to listen in. One can probably guess what had happened. NOTHING. To this day the Buffalo Common Council has said nothing about any further plan to draw up and introduce legislation banning animal acts in the city. Could it be maybe Ringling Brothers lined the council members pockets with green paper with dead presidents on them? One has to wonder. It dosen’t matter if Ringling Brothers and other circuses including the rodeo who have been cited for numerous violations involving the Animal Welfare Act throughout the years are performing in their great city. It doesn’t matter to the council members that these animals live horrid lives confined in small dirty diseased cages traveling throughout the country. Never knowing how the other half lives the way nature had intended them to. It doesn’t bother the coucil members that many times these poor creatures are denied proper veterinary care, are beaten daily to make them perform and when they have served their employer well are shipped off to a small cramped zoo where little children throw peanuts at them. What does matter to the council members is if they can afford to spend time in Florida a few weeks or more in the winter months or pay off a new SUV or buy their wives a fur coat for their birthday. As I stated at the beginning folks ITS WHERE THE MONEY IS! A rest my case!
I read in the local paper that the owner of the circus has given testimony in court that his workers do hit the elephants with the metal-tipped bullhooks but said it doesn’t harm them! So when circus people say that their animals are well-treated people should remember what treatment is acceptable to them. I’ll never forget the day I was watching some circus elephants standing like statues outside the tent. Suddenly there was a torrential rain and the parking lot filled with huge pools of water. The elephants shrieked and ran through the water, spraying and playing with each other. Some just plopped down in the cool liquid.
While it was fun to watch it was bittersweet. Here were intelligent animals finally getting to feel what their wild counterparts get to feel–the simple joy of playing in pools of water! Circus life is a life of deprivation for animals. If people really care about elephants (and other animals) they’ll boycott animal circuses instead of subsidizing cruelty.
We really need to rethink the way animals are being treated in every area. I’ve boycotted both zoos and circuses for many years, but people are really pretty unconscious. It should be obvious that we don’t have the right to mistreat these creatures.
It amazes me that people still go to the circus that has animal performers. How can people support this. At the very least it is insensative to use animals like this for our entertainment. And you know that they are using cruel methods to make these poor animals “perform”. Isn’t there enough human tricks (ie. reality TV shows) to keep people entertained. I wish more people would become educated about what is going on behind the curtains. Maybe then the attendance would drop and these shows would be forced to shut down.
This is not the 1790s which is when the circus started. This is the year 2009.
People have access to cable TV and the internet and even trips to Africa where they can see these animals in their “natural” habitats. The circus is not necessary to attend.
What makes the circus different than a dog fight? The audience is gaining entertainment with the use of animals that have been hurt or scared into doing their actions.
I find it extremely hard to believe that in this 21st century there are still animals being forced to entertain. There is absolutely no excuse for the ongoing, daily abuse and down right torture of animals unwillingly performing in circuses. This barbaric and outdated tradition must come to an end.
Elephants are gentle creatures that love to roam with their herd for a long distance at a time. It is very unnatural and cruel to confine them in a cage for their entire miserable lives and deprive them of the space that they need to roam around and be free. These are wild animals that belong in the wild period. How is this entertainment and fun to watch if the elephants are getting beaten with bullhooks? The abusers need to wake up and start living in the 21st century. The elephants in the circus should be released to an animal sanctuary where they can spend the rest of their lives living in their natural and free environment. These elephants are slaves to their abusive masters and we need to fight for their freedom and end this slavery for good!
I have met a woman who worked for Ringling Brothers Cicus. She said the abuse of the animals was constant. She even had a bullhook that they beat the animals with. It is a huge, heavy, metal rod with a hook at the end, to tear the anilmal’s skin. She had to leave her job because the abuse was too much to bear. Don’t buy tickets from animal abusers!
Watching the videos on http://www.circuses.com, the animal trainers look sadistic in the way they are beating these elephants. Do they get off on this abuse? It is disgusting that it is allowed and out of all the investigations that P.E.T.A has done and has a lot of evidence against the Ringling Bros., why isn’t the U.S.D.A. doing something about it? It just goes to show you that money making is more important than helping abused animals. I hope one day one of these elephants will get tired of being whipped with bullhooks and fight back. How would these trainers liked to be beat with bullhooks across the face, legs and body? They should be in prison for animal abuse. This is not entertainment- takes your kids to the park or Chuck e’ Cheeses!
After receiving materials about how Ringling Circus abuses the animals it uses in its shows, I will never attend an animal-based circus every again. Thank you to everyone who was protesting that horrible circus.
You would think that by the first decade of the twenty-first century, human beings might have evolved to the point where they would be able to share the planet with the animals that were also placed on this earth by God. I don’t believe they were put here merely to amuse us or to feed us.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
Circuses are tied to the illegal animal trade, as many of their animals are kidnapped from endangered populations. The animals are frequently kept in cramped, filthy cages, & subject to grueling travels where they are exposed to the elements. Furthermore, it is not these animal’s natural behavior to “perform” for humans… usually, ritualized torture is necessary to get them to cooperate. These animals are often driven insane by the conditions they are subjected to. Animals whose spirit & individuality are broken will follow orders for a crowd…
Circus animals are usually kidnapped from endangered populations, a process that ends in death for many wild animals. The “lucky” ones who survive are often subjected to cramped, filthy quarters, rigorous long-distance transport with no protection from the elements, & ritualized torture to coerce them into “performing” for an audience. “Circus animals” do not naturally perform tricks… many of them have been driven insane by their “training”. Animals who have been robbed of their peace of mind & individuality will perform the cheap tricks demanded of them by circuses.
THE FOLLOWING IS A LETTER THAT ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST TRACY MURPHY WROTE TO THE CITY GOVERNMENT OF BUFFALO, NY:
Dear Mayor Brown and the Common Council of Buffalo,
The Ringling Circus has left town, and I am here dumbfounded as to why we allow a business to perform in Buffalo that is clearly abusive to Asian elephants, an endangered species, as well as many other exotic and domestic animals.
The inhumane treatment toward animals with whips, blow torches and bull hooks has been documented for years by many animal welfare agencies. Currently there is a Federal lawsuit against Ringling for illegal abusive treatment toward a protected endangered species, the elephants.
The animals are clearly kept in bondage and suffer greatly every day of their lives. Why cannot we reach into our sense of common decency and ban these circuses with animals? I ask all of you this question and so do many others: http://wnymedia.net/wnymedia/brianzabka/2009/10/peta-protests-the-circus/
I care deeply for these elephants, as well as all the animals that are exploited in these circuses. I am not ashamed to stand up for every one of them, and if it takes standing on the street corners of Buffalo to collect thousands of petition signatures to help these animals, I will peacefully and proudly do that. I cannot think of any other way I would want to spend the rest of my life.
As Martin Luther King, Jr said, “One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and become worthier of sharing this planet with them. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Let freedom ring for these animals. Let freedom ring.
Sincerely,
Tracy Murphy
It doesn’t just stop at the circus folks…. check out what they do to the animals you eat!
pledge to be veg!
“Chew on This”—in three minutes, learn 30 reasons to go vegetarian.
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2055
http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/
The circus has many entertaining acts that do not include animals. They should build on those and release the animals to sanctuaries. It’s a shame they still think animals “tricks” are essential to the program. Maybe if Buffalo joined forces with other cities who have already banned circus acts with animals, Ringling would wise up. Mayor Brown, please take a stand.
Oh T – Bag, yes you are right. But many of the individuals that wrote on this site are indeed vegetarians. Tom Degan is, I am, Lynn Mancuso is, Jeffery Termini is, Katarczyna is, and Molly as well. These are all my friends, and they care deeply for all animals. Thank you for helping to educate people on the cruelty toward farm animals as well. Please join us at http://www.buffaloveg.com. Thanks.
Thanks Tracy… that’s a great site!… just moved away from Buffalo last year, but I’m glad to see the VEG-Revolution is gaining strength.
We were just in town a few weeks ago and had another meal at “Merge” on Delaware ave. great place… hope they can survive in the Chicken Wing and Hoagie world that is downtown Buffalo.