UniverSoul Circus to Draw Opening-Night Protest at National Harbor

PETA Will Urge Passersby to Avoid Cruel and Dangerous Show at All Costs

For Immediate Release:
June 19, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Armed with signs proclaiming, “UniverSoul: End Cruel Animal Acts Now,” a group of PETA supporters will descend on UniverSoul Circus’ opening-night performance at National Harbor.

When:    Thursday, June 20, 6 p.m.

Where:    The Plateau parking lot (on the sidewalk), 238 Waterfront St., Oxon Hill

“Today’s public respects wildlife and has no interest in seeing miserable, abused animals performing stupid tricks,” says PETA Foundation Deputy Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Rachel Mathews. “PETA’s protesters are pushing UniverSoul to embrace an animal-free future before it follows Ringling Bros. out of business.”

Ringling Bros.—once the largest U.S. circus—shut down in 2017, citing the public’s changing attitude toward the use of animals in entertainment, as demonstrated by declining ticket sales. Kelly Miller Circus is now touring animal-free, and a growing number of states and cities across the country have banned traveling wild-animal acts.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.