Ringling Brother's Circus of Cruelty

The Ringling Brother’s Circus has come to the Giant Center in Hershey. Last Friday a friend of mine and myself went to go protest it. Unfortunately due to a lack of people, the protest was a bit of a fail. Megan and I did meet a wicked individual, Beth though. Megan and I went again today, and we saw Beth again. We started our protest at six, an hour and a half before the start of the show. We got some good response from the public, we had hand outs that we gave out, and a couple of people took them, or even better actually started to talk to us about the information we were presenting. SOOOOME people though, found in necessary to say mean things such as, “I know where cheeseburgers come from, and I still eat them” another gentleman said, “You guys are crazy! Go home” Yet another guy looked at me as he walked by and said, “Well, the government abuses us” It seems that some people don’t care an ounce for animals, and I believe it is absolutely disgusting. Of course all we said to those people were, “Have a good evening, Sir” and that was that. If those individuals had asked to talk to us, we would have told them the following: - Baby elephants are beaten into submission using chains, bullhooks, and electric prods “It wasn't just one or two people," Rider told Morales. "It was every handler at Ringling that held a bull hook" (Tom Rider former elephant handler for Ringling talking about abusing elephants) - Animals die during transportation in extreme heat and cold weather: “He said circus officials would not stop the train to cool the animal off despite reports by him and another handler that the 2-year-old lion, named Clyde, and other animals were suffering from intense heat” 1 - 8-month-old Ricardo had to be euthanized after he feel off of a platform during a training session - USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) has charged Ringling with multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act o Kenny died after performing three times while being ill and having veterinary recommendation to stay in the barn 2 o Ringling has killed four baby elephants: Kenny, Ricardo, Bertha, and Benjamin 2 In short, Ringling is NOT a humane circus. Any information you receive from them is obviously biased to support them. Their own employees have testified against them in court.There have been multiple lawsuits against them. If you want to help give the animals a voice, speak out. Get the facts, DON’T GO TO CIRCUSES WITH ANIMALS. Get to a protest near you! The one at the Giant Center is going on tomorrow for two more shows. Sunday : 12:00 PM and 4:oo PM Monday 12:00. Hope to see you there!! Here are some links about the circus cruelty:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48042-2004Aug7.html (1)

http://www.wildlifeadvocacy.org/current/circus/elephant_mistreatment.php (2)

http://www.circuses.com/ringling.asp

http://www.awionline.org/ht/d/sp/i/11273/pid/11273