For Immediate Release:
May 19, 2011
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Stroudsburg, Pa. -- This morning, PETA fired off a letter to Pocono Township Police Department Chief Chester Staples calling on his department not to sponsor Cole Bros. Circus performances in the future. The police department is sponsoring the circus while it is in town this week. In the letter, PETA points out that there is a conflict of interest in having the law-enforcement and public-safety body sponsor Cole Bros. when the circus has been repeatedly called out not only for unlawful cruelty to animals but also for putting human safety at risk when animals with the circus have escaped.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
PETA's letter to Chief Staples, which outlines the numerous cruelty and endangerment infractions that Cole Bros. Circus has racked up under the big top, follows.
May 19, 2011
Chester R. Staples
Chief of Police
Dear Chief Staples:
We are writing to ask that the Pocono Township Police Department not sponsor Cole Bros. Circus performances in the future. Not only is it a conflict of interest for a law-enforcement body to sponsor an entity that it is charged with overseeing, it is also inappropriate for a police department to sponsor a circus that has repeatedly been involved with unlawful cruelty to animals. Finally, Cole Bros. Circus, which has a history of animal escapes and inattentive handling, poses a serious risk to human safety.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has repeatedly cited Cole Bros. for failure to provide veterinary care to animals, including elephants who have shown extreme weight loss, as well as failure to provide adequate space to animals. The USDA also filed formal charges of Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations against Cole Bros. because elephants used by the circus showed signs of being abused with bullhooks (rods with solid, steel-pointed ends that resemble fireplace pokers), and a New Jersey humane society charged the circus with cruelty to animals for overloading and overworking an elephant. In addition, two elephants used by Cole Bros., who were described as malnourished and neglected, died suddenly within a two-week period. Furthermore, earlier this year, Cole Bros. and its president pleaded guilty to violating the Endangered Species Act by illegally selling two Asian elephants. The circus was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay more than $150,000 in fines.
Because Cole Bros. no longer possesses an animal exhibitor license from the USDA, the circus leases animals from outside companies such as Carson & Barnes, which the USDA fined for elephant abuse after employees were caught on videotape beating elephants with bullhooks and shocking them with electric prods. Many of the animal acts used by Cole Bros. have been cited by the USDA for, among other things, failing to provide veterinary care.
Cole Bros. also endangers public safety. In seven separate incidents—one as recent as last year—elephants with Cole Bros. have become violent, killing two members of the public, injuring more than a dozen others, and rampaging during performances, causing tens of thousands of dollars in property damage. Just this month, moreover, we have received multiple complaints with photographs and video footage documenting inattentive elephant handling and failure to provide adequate barriers between the public and elephants and tigers.
May we please hear from you that you will not sponsor Cole Bros.—or any circus that uses animals—in the future?
Very truly yours,
Delcianna Winders
Director
Captive Animal Law Enforcement