Group Will Make Public Plea to Atlanta Officials on the Steps of City Hall
For Immediate Release:
June 14, 2012
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Atlanta -- With the Atlanta City Council poised to vote on Monday whether to exclude from the Atlanta City Code the Fulton County ban on using weapons such as bullhooks—sharp metal-tipped rods that resemble fireplace pokers—on elephants, PETA will hold a news conference on Friday, June 15, on the steps of City Hall to show how reversing the bullhook ban will give circuses carte blanche to beat and gouge elephants in the city. The PETA Foundation's director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement will give a statement; screen undercover video footage of elephant handlers with Ringling Bros. and other circuses as they beat, jabbed, and hooked elephants with bullhooks when they thought that no one was watching; and display photographs of violent training sessions in which Ringling employees slammed baby elephants to the ground, tied them down, and beat them with bullhooks to force them into submission:
Date: Friday, June 15
Time: 12 noon
Place: Steps of City Hall, on Mitchell Street (between Central Avenue and Washington Street), Atlanta
"PETA wants the councilmembers to know exactly the kind of abuse of animals they would be endorsing by overturning the ban on cruel bullhooks in this city," says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Delcianna Winders. "Any vote in favor of excluding the bullhook ban is a vote in favor of abusing elephants—from terrified babies to ailing seniors—something the mayor should be ashamed of."
Representatives from Ringling's parent company, as well as others who stand to profit from bullhook abuse, attended the June 12 meeting of the city of Atlanta's public safety and legal administration committee to encourage the committee to adopt an ordinance that would incorporate virtually all of Fulton County's animal control provisions—but not the bullhook ban. Although PETA and numerous Atlantans urged the committee to include the bullhook ban, all but two members of the committee voted to exclude it.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.