Victory: VFW Hall Bars Wild-Animal Circuses After PETA Appeal

Venue Nabs Delicious Vegan Chocolates in Thanks for Compassionate Move

For Immediate Release:
March 25, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

After learning that Carson & Barnes Circus was scheduled to perform at the VFW hall earlier this month, PETA urged the venue to bar all wild-animal circuses from performing there going forward, which it did. In thanks, PETA is sending the hall a box of vegan elephant-shaped chocolates.

“The VFW hall has done the right thing in refusing to host circuses that haul sensitive wild animals from town to town and force them to perform under threat of punishment,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Every city, county, and venue that rejects animal acts helps PETA push circuses toward an animal-free future.”

PETA notes that Carson & Barnes has racked up more than 100 citations for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, including failing to provide animals with adequate space, shelter from the elements, clean water, and veterinary care. The circus’s head trainer was caught on video viciously attacking elephants with a bullhook—a sharp weapon resembling a fireplace poker used to jab, strike, and intimidate elephants—and shocking them with an electric prod, causing them to scream in pain.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, which is the human-supremacist viewpoint that animals are ours to breed, sell, or display for profit or amusement. The VFW hall in Leander joins more than 650 venues nationwide that now prohibit wild-animal exhibits.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.