Protesters Draw Attention to Ringling's Violent Treatment of Baby Elephants
For Immediate Release:
July 26, 2012
Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382
Anaheim, Calif. -- An "elephant" will lead PETA protesters on Friday as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus prepares for its opening show in Anaheim. 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 bullhooks, 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 has recently narrated a video exposé that focuses on how circuses abuse elephants.
When: Friday, July 27, 12 noon
Where: Outside the Honda Center, at the intersection of E. Katella Avenue and S. Douglas Road, Anaheim
"Orange County 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. "We're telling parents that if their kids love animals, the last place they should take them is the circus."
Late last year, Ringling Bros. paid the largest fine in circus history—$270,000—for violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Both the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Los Angeles and the Pasadena Humane Society & SPCA have joined 13 other California humane societies to urge Californians to boycott Ringling Bros. and all other circuses that use animals, citing the circus's routine bullhook and other abuse.
For more information, please visit PETA's website RinglingBeatsAnimals.com.