UniverSoul Circus to Draw Opening-Night Protest in Hampton
PETA Will Urge Passersby to Avoid Cruel and Dangerous Show at All Costs
For Immediate Release:
July 30, 2019
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Armed with signs proclaiming, “UniverSoul: End Cruel Animal Acts Now,” a group of PETA supporters will descend on UniverSoul Circus’ opening-night performance in Hampton.
When: Wednesday, July 31, 6 p.m.
Where: Hampton Roads Convention Center, 1610 Coliseum Dr. (at the intersection with Convention Center Boulevard), Hampton
“Today’s public respects wildlife and has no interest in seeing miserable, abused animals performing stupid tricks,” says PETA Foundation Deputy Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Rachel Mathews. “PETA’s protesters are pushing UniverSoul to embrace an animal-free future before it follows Ringling Bros. out of business.”
Ringling Bros.—once the largest U.S. circus—shut down in 2017, citing the public’s changing attitude toward the use of animals in entertainment, as demonstrated by declining ticket sales. Kelly Miller Circus is now touring animal-free, and a growing number of states and cities across the country have banned traveling wild-animal acts.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
