For Immediate Release:
June 24, 2011
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Waterbury, Conn. -- Last Friday, a Berkshire County, Mass. resident and his son decided to stop by the parking lot where the Cole Bros. Circus was unloading and videotape the elephants "just for fun"—but what they observed was far from fun. As you can see in the video footage, a handler yells at the elephants before striking one of them with a bullhook (a rod with a solid steel-pointed end that resembles a fireplace poker). The blow makes a clearly audible whack. The same handler then takes a step back and swings the bullhook as if it were a baseball bat, striking the elephant on her face twice more. The circus is currently in Waterbury.
"This was not an 'attention getter,'" the father explained to PETA when he reported the incident. "This worker reared back and swung the club with all his might, twice. You could hear the whack as the club struck the elephant. My son and I were shocked."
PETA is now calling on local and state animal control to immediately inspect the circus with the assistance of independent experts (which PETA has offered to pay for) and to assess the elephants' condition and prevent further abuse. PETA is also calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to have a veterinarian with elephant expertise immediately inspect the elephants and take any appropriate enforcement action. This is the third complaint regarding Cole Bros. that PETA has filed in the past six weeks, and each has been accompanied with authenticated video footage and/or photographs evidencing aggressive bullhook use.
Because Cole Bros. Circus no longer possesses an animal exhibitor license from the USDA, its animal acts are leased from outside companies such as Carson & Barnes. Cole Bros.' main handler, John Caudill III, is the subject of PETA's two recent USDA complaints against the circus, and PETA believes that he is likely the man shown on the new tape. Caudill has previously pleaded guilty to 18 willful violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), including failures to handle an elephant in a manner that did not cause physical harm, trauma, and unnecessary discomfort as well as failure to have veterinary care provided to injured, ill, and excessively thin elephants. He was prohibited from having an AWA license for five years but may have returned to his old practices. PETA hopes that officials will thoroughly investigate the identity of the handler in this new video evidence, and if it proves to be Caudill, bring all warranted charges against him as well as any other circus employees suspected of abusing animals.
More information about the Cole Bros. Circus can be found here.