‘Tiger’ and ‘Elephant’ to Demand Retirement at Ringling’s Opening Night

Protesters to Call for Releasing All Wild Animals to Sanctuaries Now

For Immediate Release:
April 21, 2016

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

This Friday, PETA supporters in tiger and elephant costumes will converge on the opening night of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Worcester. The protesters will display a bullhook—a weapon that resembles a fireplace poker with a sharp hook on one end, which the circus uses to beat elephants into submission—and call for the lions, tigers, elephants, and other animals forced to perform in Ringling’s shows to be immediately retired to accredited sanctuaries.

Where:           DCU Center, at the intersection of Foster Street and Major Taylor Boulevard, Worcester

When:             Friday, April 22, 6 p.m.

“Chains, cages, whips, and bullhooks are the tools of Ringling’s trade,” says PETA Foundation Captive Law Enforcement Counsel Rachel Mathews. “PETA is calling on everyone to stay away from Ringling Bros. until the circus takes elephants, tigers, lions, and all other exotic animals off the road and retires them to accredited sanctuaries.”

In their natural habitats, big cats roam vast territories, but in circuses, they are carted from arena to arena in cages so small that they can barely turn around. During performances, the threat of violence forces them to do physically challenging stunts, such as walking on their hind legs. And while Ringling has pledged to phase out its elephant acts by May, a new report prepared by PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—reveals that elephants at the circus’s “retirement” facility are not only still chained and abused with bullhooks but also at risk of contracting deadly tuberculosis.

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