Animal Protectionists Sue For Records of Ringling Bros.' Treatment of Elephants

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Friday, 21 December 2001

Suit Comes During the Criminal Trial against Famous Circus Trainer, Mark Oliver Gebel, for Endangered Elephant Abuse in San Jose, California.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the Animal Welfare Institute, and The Fund For Animals filed a lawsuit yesterday in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, under the Freedom of Information Act, to reveal how much U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) knows about the routine, systematic abuse of elephants in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus.

Over the last five years, the USDA has initiated several investigations of Ringling Bros. under the Animal Welfare Act, the law protecting animals in the circus. In virtually every instance, investigations were quietly "closed" or settled without pursuing any federal charges and without disclosing the underlying investigatory evidence to the public.

Investigations were triggered by eyewitness reports from former Ringling. Bros. Employees who testified that animals were chained up to 24 hours a day and beaten with bullhooks to "train" and control them. In one instance, an investigation was triggered by USDA's own inspectors who saw baby elephants with large bloody lesions at Ringling Bros.' elephant breeding facility in Florida. In May of this year, attorneys for the plaintiffs made a formal request for the documents and have since been refused access to the evidence in the federal government's possession.

"Under the law, the USDA must let the public know what evidence it is sitting on from closed investigations conducted in the last four years concerning Ringling Brothers' treatment of endangered Asian elephants," stated Katherine Meyer, attorney for the plaintiffs.

"Although the USDA has conducted more than a dozen investigations of charges that Ringling Brothers' abused their elephants, the USDA has refused to release the documentation collected during their investigations," said Lisa Weisberg, ASPCA senior vice president of government affairs and public policy.

This lawsuit comes during the criminal trial in San Jose, California against Mark Oliver Gebel, one of the biggest showmen of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, on charges that he abused an endangered Asian elephant by striking it with an ankus -- a long, pole with a sharp metal point on the end of it -- leaving an open, bleeding wound.

The groups, who already have several recent videotapes of Ringling Bros.' employees poking and hitting the animals with bullhooks and other instruments, are invoking the public's "right to know" under the Freedom of Information Act to shed public light on why the USDA has failed to take any enforcement action against the multi-million dollar circus.

To obtain a copy of ASPCA videotape of Ringling employees striking and hitting endangered Asian elephants, contact: ASPCA Media Relations at (212) 876-7700 ext. 4655

For more information, or to contact American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, see their website at: www.aspca.org