PETA Alert: Upcoming Arab Shrine Circus Will Feature Abused Elderly Elephants
For Immediate Release:
February 5, 2025
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Ahead of the Arab Shrine Circus’s performances later this month at the Stormont Vail Events Center, PETA wants the public to know about the Shrine’s use of elderly elephants from notoriously cruel exhibitor Carson & Barnes Circus.
The upcoming Topeka shows are expected to feature, among other elephants supplied by Carson & Barnes, a 56-year-old female named Isla who has been used before in local Arab Shrine Circus shows. PETA obtained recent video footage taken at the Moslah Shrine Circus in North Richland Hills, Texas, in November showing Isla being forced to give rides as handlers repeatedly jab her trunk with bullhooks—weapons resembling a fireplace poker with a sharp hook on one end that are used to instill fear in elephants and force them to obey commands. The devices are designed to subtly inflict pain, right under the audience’s noses.
Carson & Barnes’ history of elephant abuse runs as deep as Isla’s decades of confinement are long: The company has been cited for more than 100 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, and its head trainer was previously caught on video shocking elephants with electric prods, beating them with bullhooks, and instructing other trainers to sink the weapons into elephants’ flesh and twist them until the animals scream.
In one heartbreaking incident in 2017, Isla helped remove a fellow elephant’s leg restraints when they were housed together in a barn overnight, allowing that elephant to escape into a nearby neighborhood. In nature, elephants typically work cooperatively to find food, protect one another from danger, and even come to the aid of other species.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
