PETA Rallies Supporters to Demand That Blue Water Fest Nix Elephant Rides

Protest Planned if Abusive and Repeatedly Penalized Exhibitor Is Permitted to Use Ailing, Neglected Elephant at Next Week’s Event

For Immediate Release:
July 11, 2013

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Port Huron, Mich. — PETA has posted an action alert on its popular website asking visitors to immediately contact the organizers of The Blue Water Fest and urge them to cancel elephant rides that are scheduled to be provided. The exhibitor offering the rides, Hugo Liebel of the notorious Liebel Family Circus, has been repeatedly cited and penalized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for denying veterinary care to Nosey, the elephant forced to carry fairgoers on her back, as well as for other violations. Liebel has also been cited and penalized for repeatedly allowing dangerous, unsupervised public contact with Nosey, who attacked and sent a worker to the emergency room in 2004.

In the event that fair organizers don’t cancel the elephant rides, PETA is planning a volunteer-led protest outside the fairgrounds.

“No matter how many times he gets caught, Liebel continues to thumb his nose at animal welfare and public safety,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Delcianna Winders. “If The Blue Water Fest hosts this cruel outfit, it will virtually be underwriting animal abuse and public endangerment.”

Liebel was recently ordered to pay a $7,500 penalty to settle nearly three dozen charges of violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. These charges included repeatedly chaining Nosey so tightly that she could barely move and denying her necessary veterinary care. According to USDA records, Liebel has failed to adequately treat Nosey’s chronic skin condition over a 20-year period. Despite a growing collection of federal violations, he continues to deny this elephant the care that she needs—instead transporting her all over the country and forcing her to give rides.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.