‘Captive Residents’ to Protest Ringling at Florida Neighborhoods Conference

PETA Will Draw Attention to Circus’s Violent Treatment of Animals 

For Immediate Release:
July 11, 2013

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Palmetto, Flo. – A “tiger” and an “elephant” with injuries will lead PETA protesters outside the Bradenton Area Convention Center on Friday as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus owner Kenneth Feld delivers the keynote address at the Florida Neighborhoods Conference. Signs will read, “Ringling = Cruelty in Your Backyard.” PETA has obtained compelling photos taken inside Ringling’s breeding and training compound that expose how baby elephants used by Ringling are stretched out, slammed to the ground, gouged with steel-tipped bullhooks, and shocked with electric prods. When tigers aren’t performing, they’re confined to small transport cages. Eyewitness testimony and numerous inspection reports reveal that Ringling routinely fails to let them out of their tiny cages except when they’re forced to perform, an apparent violation of the federal requirement that tigers have daily exercise opportunities apart from performances.

When:   Friday, July 12, 12 noon

Where:  Bradenton Area Convention Center, 1 Haben Blvd. (near the intersection with Riviera Dunes Way), Palmetto

“The only audience that Kenneth Feld should be addressing is a judge to answer for Ringling’s routine and severe abuse of elephants and tigers,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Law Enforcement Delcianna Winders. “Because children love animals, the last place that parents should take them to is the circus.”

In 2011, Ringling Bros. paid the largest fine in circus history—$270,000—for violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

For more information, please visit PETA’s website RinglingBeatsAnimals.com.