‘Tigers’ to Tell Ringling Bros. Circus: Let My People Go!
PETA Will Urge Boycott of Circus Until It Retires All Wild Animals
Three “tigers” and a crowd of PETA supporters will roll up the welcome mat on Ringling Bros. on its opening day at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Thursday. Armed with signs and leaflets, the protesters will urge passersby to boycott the show until all the wild animals the circus cages, chains, and beats into performing are released to accredited sanctuaries. The action follows the city’s ban on bullhooks—weapons resembling a fireplace poker with a sharp metal hook on one end that Ringling Bros. trainers use to gouge elephants to perform—and PETA’s recent call for a ban on wild animals in circuses.
Where: Staples Center, 1111 S. Figueroa St. (at the intersection of W. 12th and S. Figueroa streets), Los Angeles
When: Thursday, July 14, 12 noon and 6 p.m.
“As cities like West Hollywood and San Francisco ban wild-animal acts, the public has made it clear that it will not stand for a circus that imprisons and abuses animals,” says PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Rachel Mathews. “Pulling the elephants off the road was a step in the right direction, and now PETA is calling on Ringling Bros. to stop dragging tigers, lions, and other animals from city to city, where they are kept in tiny cages and forced to perform under the constant threat of punishment.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—notes that wild animals used in circuses are often torn away from their mothers as babies and confined to barren cages and cramped boxcars when not performing. The animals are forced to do tricks under the threat of being whipped, beaten, or shocked with an electric prod and commonly suffer from chronic health problems, psychological disorders, and premature death.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
