PETA Statement: Vatican Asked to Show Mercy and Nix Circus Show

For Immediate Release:
January 10, 2018

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA President Ingrid Newkirk in response to reports that the Vatican has arranged for more than 2,000 people to attend a performance of Circo Medrano on Thursday, despite the suspended sentence of its administrator for physical and psychological abuse of animals:

His Holiness’ concern for the downtrodden must rightly extend to the wild animals who have been taken from their homelands and are enslaved, caged, chained, and beaten so that they’ll perform tricks that baffle and stress them. Italy and other countries as well as U.S. states are banning wild-animal acts, and we appeal to Pope Francis to replace Thursday’s show with a charitable event that shows mercy to all living, feeling beings.

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment,” and more information about circuses is available here.