Ringling Brothers Circus will be in town starting May 24-28. With this comes pain and suffering for the animals that will be performing. All animals suffer from living in small and cramped cages. They don't get the exercise that is needed to keep them healthy. Their entire life is living in these cages and entertaining the public.

I don't think the public knows the inhumane treatment these creatures receive day in and day out. I would hope that people take the time to look into the conditions these animals live in, especially since Ringling Brothers has been cited over and over with abuses involving their animals, especially the elephants. Elephants have died while in the care of Ringling Brothers, where animals aren't given veterinary care, and where there is failure to provide sufficient space for them to live in, and the list goes on.

Elephants that live in the wild may walk many miles a day. With Ringling Brothers they can walk only a few steps before they are stopped by chains around their legs. Elephants will sleep four hour a day, with Ringling Brothers they are too stressed to feel secure enough to lie down. Ringling Brothers wants you to believe they don't use wild elephants, yet the Asian Elephant Stud Book, the industries resource for information on elephant births, deaths and captures, shows that the majority of Ringling's elephants were captured in the wild.

Ringling Brothers wants you to think that the animals enjoy doing the tricks that they do to entertain us. Ask yourself, when was the last time you saw a big cat jump through a hoop, oh yeah, when it was on fire, in the wild? The elephants are beaten with whips, bull hooks, muzzles, and electric prods to get them to perform. An elephant being made to stand on its head is torture, especially from the weight these animals weigh. Most people can't stand on their heads, so why would we expect these creatures to do so. One of the trainers is on a video that the public can view (Peta.com) saying, 'hit them till they scream'. If this isn't torture, what is? There are elephants that are being made to perform even now with injuries.

There are so many other circuses out there that don't use animals. They're entertaining, and funny, and the whole family can enjoy them. The best thing is, that these people perform because they want too, the animals that are beaten into submission have not been given the right to say yes or no.

Please do the right thing.

Elizabeth Ferrari
Saving Animals Via Education (S.A.V.E.)
Soddy Daisy
Elizabeth@SavingAnimalsViaEducation.org

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I am encouraged to know that there are people willing to speak up for circus animals. More and more the public will not stand by and allow animals to be abused for entertainment.

More than a 1,000 letters have been written by our supporters just since the first of the year asking that these roving circuses and side shows be banned. The “Greatest Show On Earth” opted to remove big cats from one of their two shows and were quoted in the press as saying they will remove the big cats from the remaining acts if they see that people are supportive of their efforts. Polls show that 90% of the public do not believe that big cats should be used in these sorts of acts and some cities are taking note.

The U.K. banned circuses last year that have big cats and so did India even prior to that. Making animals perform is a concept of brute mentality that very few can tolerate anymore.

Caring and compassionate people just won’t go to the circus if animals are going to be used, but it takes more than that. It takes the courage of people like Elizabeth Ferrari who wrote to you and expressed why she won’t be attending the circus until the animal acts are dropped.

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue- an Educational Sanctuary home to more than 100 big cats
Tampa, Fl.
MakeADifference@BigCatRescue.org

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Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I think it’s only fair and legitimate to use facts especially when one is claiming to be “saving animals via education.” I feel compelled to respond to some of the many slanderous and unsubstantiated statements made by Elizabeth Ferrari of Saving Animals Via Education.

“They don’t get the exercise that is needed to keep them healthy.” You couldn’t be more incorrect if you tried. Circus animals get more exercise than even most family pets could ever hope to get. They walk many miles every week and are exercised in the arenas nearly every day.

“I would hope that people take the time to look into the conditions these animals live in” – this is something that obviously Ms. Ferrari herself has not done given all the misinformation she is giving out.
“where animals aren’t given veterinary care” – tell that to the full time veterinary staff flying around the country to care for the animals in all 3 traveling shows and at the Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC), and in addition all the on-call vets in each and every city the shows visit.
“Elephants that live in the wild may walk many miles a day. With Ringling Brothers they can walk only a few steps before they are stopped by chains around their legs.” In every state BUT Tennessee (who unfortunately passed a law requiring elephants to be on chains), Ringling provides paddocks for the elephants complete with sand or dirt piles, pools and browse. If you’d ever heeded your own advice, you would have seen the elephants in these paddocks and noticed that there are no stereotypic behaviors such as swaying . This is due to the fact that the elephants get plenty of exercise and mental stimulation.

“Elephants will sleep four hours a day, with Ringling Brothers they are too stressed to feel secure enough to lie down.” Says who? I have photos of them sleeping lying down – would you like to see them?

“Ringling Brothers wants you to believe they don’t use wild elephants” Where did this come from? I’ve never heard them say that. They haven’t brought elephants in from the wild in over 30 years but many of their elephants were wild born, as are most zoos. They have had 20 calves born at the CEC, second generation even.

“The elephants are beaten with whips, bull hooks, muzzles, and electric prods to get them to perform.” Have you ever been to a training session? I have seen plenty of them, even video taped them for the trainer – there is no beating, electric prods and such as you claim. As a matter of fact

“An elephant being made to stand on its head is torture, especially from the weight these animal weigh. Most people can’t stand on their heads, so why would we expect these creatures to do so.” You’ve obviously never been around elephants. This natural behavior starts at a very young age, as do most of the other behaviors you see performed. They can handle their own weight quite easily, in case you weren’t aware that they are extremely strong animals and very agile. Comparing them to humans is ludicrous. Do you run down and kill prey in your neighborhood for dinner?

I would also like to point out that Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus contributes greatly to the conservation of elephants. They are a founding member and sponsor of the International Elephant Foundation, an organization that supports in situ and ex situ conservation projects around the world, emergency veterinary care and supplies in range countries, protection of elephants in the wild and their habitats, and research scholarships and grants to elephant researchers around the world.

They also contribute greatly to projects such as an endotheliotropic herpes virus research project (the single greatest health threat to the Asian elephant) and a reproductive study of semen cryopreservation which will enhance genetic diversity and ensure a healthy Asian elephant population world wide.

Animal rights activists, I ask you – what have you done to TRULY help elephants lately? Do you know that wild elephants lead a much harder life than elephants in captivity? Put your time, money and effort into saving habitat and protect those few remaining wild elephants that are struggling for space and food and water.

Elephant lover and handler,
Trudy Abad
indu1965@hotmail.com