Animal Welfare - Animal Protection -
Animal Rights
Circuses
Tell Lukoil What You Think of Its Ringling Promos
Lukoil Americas, which has roughly 2,100 gas stations, has teamed
up with notorious animal abuser Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey
Circus.
Lukoil has partnered with Ringling to host one-hour events at
company gas stations, where customers receive free or severely
discounted gas and are greeted by Ringling clowns to encourage
attendance at the circus's shows in various areas.
Please contact Lukoil CEO Vadim Gluzman and let him know how
you feel about Lukoil's endorsement of the animal abuse inherent
in Ringling Bros. Circus.
Ask Gluzman to consider the plight of Angelica, an elephant that
performed with Ringling. During her short life, Angelica has suffered
unimaginable horrors. When she was less than 2 years old, workers
used ropes to prematurely separate baby Angelica from her mother
so that she could go on the road to perform with Ringling; the
nightmarish ordeal burned her young skin and left visible wounds.
In August 2004, activists from San Francisco-based Citizens for
Cruelty-Free Entertainment captured on videotape that a Ringling
handler was hitting and jabbing a chained Angelica with a bullhook.
You can make a difference! Recently, following pressure from PETA
and activists like you, Denny's made the compassionate decision
to end its promotions with Ringling. Denny's joins many companies—such
as General Mills, Burger King, Liz Claiborne, MasterCard, Ford
Motor Company, and Sears, Roebuck and Co.—in ending their
sponsorships of either Ringling or UniverSoul circuses following
negotiations with PETA.
Thank you for taking action to help stop the suffering animals
endure in circuses like Ringling.
Sincerely,
RaeLeann Smith
Circus Specialist
PETA
Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
Vadim Gluzman, CEO
Below is the sample letter:
Subject: Please Don't Partner With Ringling
Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
I can only assume you were unaware of Ringling's history of animal
abuse when you agreed to promote the circus at your gas stations.
Please consider a few of Ringling's recent U.S. Department of Agriculture
citations, including causing trauma, behavioral stress, physical
harm, and unnecessary discomfort to two elephants; failure to provide
veterinary care to a lame elephant, an elephant with a swollen
leg, and a camel with bleeding wounds; improper handling of dangerous
animals; and failure to maintain the zebra enclosure. Given this
information, please discontinue your promotions of Ringling.
Sincerely,
Using animals in circuses is an unnecessary and inhumane
practice that's harmful to both the animals and the public. Unlike
the human performers who choose to work in circuses, exotic animals
are forced to take part in the show. They are involuntary actors
in a degrading, unnatural spectacle.
While many people associate the circus with "safe, wholesome,
family fun" — an association promoted aggressively by
the circus PR machine — the truth is much darker. Government
inspection reports reveal ongoing mistreatment of animals in circuses,
as well as failures to provide the basic minimal standards of care
required by law. Animals used in circuses have been injured and
killed, and have injured and killed humans.
Circuses that exploit animals make lofty claims about their "educational" value
and their contributions to "conservation." But the real
message that these circuses send to children is that it's acceptable
to abuse animals for amusement and profit.
And the conservation claims made by many circuses are merely veiled
attempts to justify the exploitation of animals for commercial
gain. Endangered animals born in circus "conservation" programs
have never been released into the wild — they are doomed,
instead, to life in captivity.
Born Free USA united with API's circus campaign aims to end the
exploitation of "performing" animals by educating both
the public and key decision-makers about how animals suffer under
the big top, and by pushing for legislation and policy changes
that help stop circus cruelty. We are also involved in groundbreaking
litigation against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
for its mistreatment of elephants.
Please Help Alert Venues to This Abusive
Animal Act
Baboon Lagoon is a ridiculous traveling act featuring six female hamadryas baboons.
Reduced to clowns, these intelligent primates with a documented capacity for
abstract thought are dressed in frilly tutus and forced to entertain gawking
audiences with foolish antics. Baboon Lagoon regularly makes the rounds of state
and county fairs as well as other venues around the world, not only causing tremendous
animal suffering, but also desensitizing audiences, including impressionable
children, to the cruelty inherent in captive animal acts.
Run by Lee
and Judy Stevens, a husband-and-wife team that bills itself as "featured animal trainers for the Ringling
Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus" a circus plagued
with violations of the Animal Welfare Act Baboon Lagoon is
hell on Earth for these social, curious, and complex animals.
Baboon Lagoon's Act Is All Wet
Baboon Lagoon's program features the animals riding a motorcycle, doing back
flips, and climbing a ladder. Waiting for their turn onstage, the animals
are chained to chairs, where they are forced to tolerate bright lights, blaring
music, and amplified dialog. During a recent performance, one of the baboons
was observed repeatedly bobbing her head, another obsessively groomed her
wrist, and another simply turned her back to the audience for the entire
show, seemingly trying to block out the whole sordid scene. Such neurotic
behaviors are typical of animals enduring excruciating stress and boredom
from captivity, as well as abusive training methods.
There is also evidence that solitary confinement
is a method used to ensure that the animals will perform on command:
A trainer of circus chimpanzees has admitted that he keeps the
animals in solitary confinement for the majority of the time so
that they will be more motivated to perform.
Behind the Scenes
With two to three shows each day, the baboons spend the majority of their time
up to 22 hours per day caged in semi-darkness. They are kept in traveling
cages that measure approximately 2 feet by 3 feet-metal boxes with wire mesh
fronts and sawdust scattered on the floor. The cages are built into a travel
truck so little, if any, natural light penetrates their enclosures.
On the road
for six months out of each year, the baboons are subjected to
the stress of intense confinement, loneliness, and insufficient
exercise. The Stevens boast that Baboon Lagoon has traveled all
over the world, including Japan, Canada, Bermuda, and "all
except two states."
Baboons Belong in the Wild
Captivity is a sad state of affairs both for animals stolen from the wild or
those born into it.
The lives
of these captive baboons are a far cry from those of their wild
relatives, who live in large, close-knit communities and travel
together for miles each day through forests, savannahs, and hills.
Baboons are highly social and caring animals who suffer when
deprived of companionship. In the wild, baboons will even stage
sit-down protests or hurl rocks at cars when a loved one is killed
on the road. The Stevens claim that their baboons were all born
in captivity and "came to [them] when they were
very, very young." In other words, as babies, they were torn
from their mothers' sides probably within days of birth and sold
to the Stevens to be trained and exploited as "performers."
Cape Fear
Fair & Expo (Wilmington, North Carolina)
Appeared October 30-November 8, 2003
Skip Watkins, President
Cape Fear Fair & Expo
F/K/A New Hanover County Fair
P.O. Box 3265
Wilmington, NC 28406
910-313-1234 info@capefearfair.com
Cayuga County Fair (Weedsport, New York)
Appeared July 13-17, 2004
Shawna McNab, Assistant Fair Director
Cayuga County Fair
1 Speedway Dr.
Weedsport, NY 1316
6 315-834-6606
315-834-9734 (fax) Info@cayugacountyfair.com
Central Florida Fair (Orlando, Florida)
Appeared February 26-March 7, 2004
In
addition to two open USDA investigations into Sterling
and Reid, the circus often uses sub-contractors with
histories of negligent animal care and serious public
safety concerns. Publicized news reports and government
inspections reveal:
a
400 pound bear falls from a moving truck on a Louisiana
interstate on 4/2/00;
a
tiger escapes and leaves a performance area unattended;
dangerous
animals are left unattended in public areas;
exotic
cats forced to live in cages so small the animals are
prevented from standing erect;
animals
fed improper diets leading to chronic malnutrition
and subsequent health problems;
lack
of veterinary care plan;
animal
handler loses control of animals and handles them abusively;
inexperienced
and unqualified handlers and trainers working with
animals;
sub-contractor
Brian Franzen surrenders 8 emaciated and dehydrated
ponies to California law enforcement in 1998 and pleads
guilty to two counts of animal abuse/neglect. In 1999,
Franzen animals were still being transported on a Sterling
and Reid truck;
in
1999 Sterling and Reid relinquish exotic cats to the
Oakland Zoo and a sanctuary when they learn the USDA
has launched a cruelty investigation;
Sterling
and Reid Circus is charged with fraudulent advertising
in Oregon in 1999;
in
St. Louis at a March 2,000 show, a horse bolts from
the ring during a performance, hits a wall and falls
down before being led back into the ring to continue
performing.
Visit CIRCUSES.COM for
more information and what you can do!
Investigating
the Universoul Circus
IPPL
investigators went undercover this summer to expose the
apparent violation of a US Fish and Wildlife Service
permit granted to Johnny Lam to permit the import from
Mexico of three chimpanzees (named Johnny, Coco and Pepe)
to tour the United States with the UniverSoul Circus.
As
first reported in the April 2000 issue of IPPL
News, the terms of the permit were disturbing. Now
IPPL has obtained video footage of a performance that
shows Lam and the circus to be in apparent non-compliance
with the terms of the permit, which was issued based
on Lam's claim that his act contributed to conservation
by its educational program.
IPPL
followed UniverSoul this summer, from Memphis to Detroit.
What our video cameras captured on tape is troubling.
Earth
Rescue: Circus of Abuse--Elephants, Trainers & Tragedy
takes an in-depth look at the controversy surrounding
the treatment of elephants performing in circuses.
A
longstanding American tradition, circuses claim that
they are safe family entertainment. However, animal advocates
and concerned citizens say that one of the least "safe" places
for families is near a performing elephant and that this
tradition should end.
Are
elephants so abused that they've become living time bombs
ready to rampage at a moment's notice? Earth Rescue,
in conjunction with The Humane Society of the United
States, examines this volatile issue.
