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A copy of the complaint (PDF format, 1.9 megabytes) |
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Ringling Bros. Charged with Abusing Elephants(Washington, D.C.) – As Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus begins performing today in the Washington, D.C. area, several animal welfare organizations, including The Fund for Animals, the Animal Welfare Institute, and The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) – the country’s oldest animal welfare organization – are warning the public about the brutality circus staff routinely inflict on performing elephants. The groups charge that to “train” and “control” its elephants, Ringling Bros. routinely keeps the 6,000- to 10,000-pound animals in chains and regularly beats them with bullhooks – clubs with sharp metal hooks on the end. In support of these charges, the organizations presented eye-witness sworn accounts by former Ringling Bros.’ employees, a recent Department of Agriculture report that Ringling Bros. causes “physical harm” to its baby elephants, and recent video footage of Ringling Bros. employees hitting elephants. “People go to the circus because they love animals,” according to Nancy Blaney, director of government affairs for the ASPCA, “not realizing that they are unwittingly perpetuating the abuse this circus inflicts on elephants. As long as people continue to buy tickets, Ringling will continue to torment elephants.” The groups, joined by a former Ringling Bros. Elephant worker, have sued Ringling Bros. under the Endangered Species Act, which prohibits the “harming” of any animal that is listed as “endangered.” Ringling Bros. uses endangered Asian elephants in its circus. The case is pending in a federal district court in Washington, DC. The reports of routine chaining and beatings are based on several recent eyewitness accounts by Ringling Bros. employees who recently left the circus and who have submitted sworn testimony to the U.S. Department of Agriculture that elephants are routinely kept in chains for as long as 20 hours a day, and that, from the time they are babies, they are beaten and repeatedly hit and prodded with sharp bullhooks in order to “break” them and make them perform “tricks” in the circus. The organizations also point to a recent USDA investigation which found that Ringling Bros. inflicted “large visible lesions” on baby elephants at its “Conservation Center” in Florida, when it forcibly separated the less than two-year-old babies from their mothers during what Ringling Bros. employees referred to as the “routine” separation process. After consulting an independent panel of elephant experts, in May 1999 the USDA informed Feld Entertainment, Ringling’s parent company, that this treatment of the babies caused them “trauma and physical harm,” and was completely “unnecessary.” In the wild, baby elephants learn important social and survival skills from their mothers and are not weaned until they are about four years old. Females stay with their mothers and the rest of their social units for their entire lives. “All of this treatment violates the law,” said Katherine Meyer, attorney with Meyer & Glitzenstein, who is handling the case against Ringling Bros. “Both the Endangered Species Act and the Animal Welfare Act prohibit the abuse of these magnificent animals. It’s time to put an end to this archaic practice.” back to the topWildlife Advocacy Project Phone: (202) 518-3700 |
