An elephant who was being loaded into a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus boxcar collapsed after struggling to climb the ramp, and according to an eyewitness, a Ringling crew member intimidated and forced the elephant to get up and into the railroad car. The circus was loading animals after finishing a run in … Read more »
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will go far and wide to find more animals to exploit. Feld Entertainment, which owns this wretchedly cruel circus, has applied to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) to import eight tigers and one leopard who are currently being used in a circus in Germany. PETA has … Read more »
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act prohibits false and deceptive advertising, so why does the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus get away with promoting beaten elephants and whipped tigers as the “greatest show on Earth”? In a letter sent to the commission, PETA asks that very question. Contrary to what Ringling’s self-serving PR … Read more »
Great news on the circus front from our colleagues at Animal Defenders International: Peru’s president, Alan García, has signed a law banning wild animals in circuses. The decision comes right on the heels of the British Parliament’s unanimous vote to direct the government to introduce a similar ban. Legislation is also pending in Scotland, Brazil, Ecuador, … Read more »
Sarah Silverman doesn’t think there’s anything funny about hurting animals. The comedian and provocateur has fired off a letter on behalf of PETA to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking that four ailing elephants traveling with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus be seized. These four girls are still on the road and … Read more »
In a protest called “massive” by a local television station, author and fitness guru Jillian Michaels led the charge alongside producer Sam Simon, Twilight‘s Christian Serratos, The Secret Life of the American Teenager‘s Renee Olstead, and hundreds of demonstrators outside the Los Angeles Staples Center to call attention to the abuse of elephants by the … Read more »
PETA has obtained copies of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection reports that describe repeated citations against the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for failing to adhere to the bare minimum regulations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. According to the most recent USDA inspection report, Ringling has failed to provide adequate veterinary … Read more »
Less than two months ago, PETA called on the Little Rock Zoo to retire its lone elephant, Ellen, (Mary, her companion, had just died), and send her to a sanctuary where she could spend her remaining years in peace and comfort. Now it’s too late: Ellen is dead. Benoit Dupont/cc by 2.0 Rather than … Read more »
Zina and Jewel, two aging elephants who have spent nearly their entire lives with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (Jewel since 1954 and Zina since 1972), have been “donated” by the circus to the Little Rock Zoo. Some “retirement”: The Little Rock Zoo still uses the cruel and archaic free-contact system to … Read more »
Queenie, an Asian elephant who spent her entire life in captivity, has died at Georgia’s Wild Adventures Water and Theme Park at age 59. Queenie was only 6 months old when her owner began training her to water ski—yes, water ski—at a Florida theme park. For 15 years in the ’50s and ’60s, Queenie performed … Read more »
We’ve developed some pretty thick skin about having our ads rejected, but this one left us feeling like we were, well, run over by a bus. The Paradise Valley Unified School District in Phoenix is selling ad space on its school buses to raise funds. Since Ringling Bros. inundates the schools with pro-circus propaganda, we thought it … Read more »
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus doesn’t always let the public know when an elephant dies, as in the case of 11-day-old Bertha, who was born and died with no recognition, but in a news release issued this week, the circus announced that an elephant named Lutzi—who spent 56 years of her 61-year life … Read more »
Despite undercover footage of Ringling and Carson & Barnes Circus showing that they treat animals cruelly, both circuses are still trying to deceive people to keep their sales alive. PETA knows that these circuses hurt elephants, and we want to force them to come clean. We believe that both of these big-top bullies are illegally deceiving the … Read more »
PETA recently uncovered that an elephant traveling with the Ringling Bros. circus, 42-year-old Karen, has tested positive for tuberculosis and was banned from the state of Tennessee earlier this year. A study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has documented the “high prevalence” of tuberculosis among captive elephants, a serious disease … Read more »
Earlier this week, we posted undercover video footage taken by London-based Animal Defenders International showing a handler who used a pitchfork and a club to viciously beat an elephant named Annie. When confronted with the video, the elephant’s owner, Bobby Roberts, wisely scrambled to save face by allowing Annie to retire from his “Super Circus” and … Read more »
