‘Crying Bear’ to Lead Protest Against Shrine Circus in Columbus

PETA Will Call On Passersby to Shun Aladdin Temple Show’s Animal Acts

For Immediate Release:
March 21, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

A “crying bear” will lead PETA members in an angry protest against the Aladdin Temple Shrine Circus on Friday, the day the circus is scheduled to arrive for its miserable stint at the Ohio Expo Center. Armed with signs proclaiming, “Bears Are Not Circus Props!” and video footage showing distressed bears at a Shrine circus performance, the pro-bear demonstrators will urge would-be attendees to steer clear of the circus until it features only willing human performers who get to go home at the end of the day, can quit if they wish to, and have families, friends, and a comfortable place to sleep.

When:    Friday, March 22, 12 noon

Where:    The intersection of E. Broad and N. Third streets, Columbus

“Bears used in circus acts are forced to wear costumes, muzzled, yanked around on leashes, and made to perform tricks that they don’t understand in front of a screaming crowd,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet. “PETA is calling on every kind person to help sensitive wild animals by staying away from the Aladdin Temple Shrine Circus and all other circuses that use and abuse them.”

Last year, a wildlife expert who observed Castle’s Bears, an act scheduled to perform in Ohio, noted that the bears were managed through “fear, coercion, and punishment” and suffered from ongoing physical and psychological trauma. Video footage shows one of the bears urinating—in apparent distress, according to the expert—during a Shrine circus performance.

PETA supporters will also protest outside the circus’s opening-night performance on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at the Ohio Expo Center, in front of the expo sign at the intersection of Velma and E. 17^th avenues.

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