Tarzan Zerbini Circus Barred From Exporting Elephants for Canadian Circus Tour

The Tarzan Zerbini Circus wasn’t allowed to bring elephants into Canada to perform in another show that it owns, the Royal Canadian Circus. The circus’s owner, Tarzan Zerbini, needed an Endangered Species Act (ESA) permit to transport the elephants across the border—but its permit was suspended by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) following a PETA lawsuit against the FWS over its unlawful “pay-to-play” scheme. The ESA requires proof that moving protected animals out of the country will help the endangered species survive, but the FWS has allowed circuses to skip this requirement in exchange for a donation to “conservation” programs—sometimes ones run by other animal-exploiting outfits. Zerbini pledged a small fraction of its annual profits in order to obtain its 3-year permit, and PETA’s lawsuit apparently prompted the FWS to inform Zerbini that because the circus had failed to pay even this small pledged amount, its permits had been suspended.