Ringling’s Abuse of Animals Sparks PETA Protest in New Orleans

Protesters Will Draw Attention to Ringling’s Violent Treatment of Baby Elephants

For Immediate Release:
June 27, 2014

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA protesters will assemble in New Orleans on Sunday afternoon as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus prepares for its show. The protesters will display signs that read, “Ringling Beats Animals,” and are emblazoned with compelling photos taken inside Ringling’s training compound. The photos expose how baby elephants used by Ringling are stretched out, slammed to the ground, gouged with steel-tipped bullhooks—weapons that resemble fireplace pokers with sharp steel hooks on one end—and shocked with electric prods. These abusive sessions go on for several hours a day in order to force the baby elephants to learn to perform circus tricks out of fear of punishment. Actor Alec Baldwin has narrated a video exposé that focuses on how circuses abuse elephants.

When:   Sunday, June 29, noon

Where:  Smoothie King Center (at the intersection of Girod Street and Le Rouge Lane), New Orleans

“New Orleanians would run screaming from the big top if they knew how baby elephants are violently forced to perform difficult, confusing, and sometimes painful tricks,” says PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders. “Since children love animals, the last place that parents and grandparents should take them to is the circus.”

In late 2011, Ringling Bros. paid the largest fine in circus history—$270,000—for violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

For more information, please visit PETA’s website RinglingBeatsAnimals.com.