Each summer, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus carts dozens of elephants and other animals around some of the hottest parts of the U.S. in sweltering, poorly ventilated boxcars. The journey can be exhausting, disorienting, and extremely stressful, and the destinations bring more misery.
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Circuses are invariably sad, deadly places for animals, and Ringling is right up there with the worst of them. The circus removes baby elephants from their loving mothers and forces them into a life of punishment, debasement, and extreme loneliness. PETA’s circus monitors have videotaped how Ringling keeps elephants in line during their walk from the train to the venue by striking and hooking them in sensitive places with a steel-tipped bullhook. Investigative footage of elephant trainers in other circuses—including one who is the son of a former Ringling trainer and the brother of a current Ringling trainer—show how trainers sink the sharp metal into the elephants’ sensitive skin, causing them to bellow in pain.
With your caring support, PETA is diligently working to end these animals’ torment.
Right now, a federal district court judge is set to rule on a lawsuit filed by a former Ringling employee and several animal welfare groups alleging that Ringling’s treatment of elephants violates the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
The evidence of cruelty to animals that PETA’s staffers have collected by following the circus from city to city was used in court proceedings and during evidence gathering in the suit, which charges Ringling with “harming, harassing, and wounding endangered elephants,” including shackling them for long periods of time so tightly that they cannot take even two steps in any direction and routinely striking them with bullhooks. PETA’s footage of Ringling substantiates the abusive use of bullhooks, reveals the bloody wounds left in their wake, and shows lame elephants.
No matter how the judge rules, this lawsuit has succeeded—by shining the spotlight on the constant abuse and deprivation that these poor, enslaved animals suffer for Ringling’s coffers. Evidence presented in court revealed that Ringling keeps elephants chained, sometimes for as many as 60 to 100 hours straight on extended trips. This is absolute agony, considering that in the wild, elephants walk up to 30 miles a day. Elephants don’t understand why they are made to perform silly, physically painful tricks over and over again, day in and day out. So Ringling beats them until they comply.
PETA is telling the elephants’ side of the story—the one that Ringling doesn’t want people to hear. And our pressure is working. Ringling hasn’t been able to hang on to a national sponsor in years because of the information that we’ve provided each of them. Cities around the country have also banned circus acts after receiving our information. And more and more families are choosing humane forms of entertainment instead because of our ads and pickets.
Incredibly, some cities do continue to roll out the red carpet for Ringling. New York City officials have welcomed Ringling to Coney Island for several months this summer, thanks to a land donation from Taconic Investments. PETA has already contacted the city and Taconic to advise them of Ringling’s lengthy history of animal abuse, and we’ll be leafleting outside every show in Coney Island for the rest of summer. Please help us stop Ringling’s expansion by doing the following:
1. Send an e-mail to the CEO of Taconic Investments to let him know that you’ll be boycotting Ringling at Coney Island this summer. Urge him never to allow a circus that uses animals to perform on the property again.
2. Make a donation to PETA today. Please know that it will help sustain our efforts to end the abuse and exploitation of elephants and all animals.
Ringling’s nightly show lasts just a couple of hours. The abuse of these animals lasts their whole lives. Thank you for making sure their suffering isn’t forgotten once the crowds go home.
Kind regards,
Ingrid E. Newkirk
President.
