ASPCA Files Lawsuit Against Circus Based on Endangered Species Act

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Monday, 21 May 2001

Joins several animal welfare agencies in lawsuit against Ringling Brothers And Barnum & Bailey Circus.

As Ringling Brothers And Barnum & Bailey Circus beings performing at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Several animal welfare organizations, including The Fund for Animals, The Animal Welfare Institute, and The ASPCA - the country's oldest animal welfare organization - are warning the public about the brutality circus staff routinely inflict on performing elephants. The groups charge that to "train" and "control" its elephants, Ringling Brothers routinely keeps the 6,000 to 10,000 pound animals in chains and regularly beats them with bullhooks - clubs with sharp metal hooks on the end. In support of these charges, the organizations presented eyewitness sworn accounts by former Ringling Bros. Employees, a recent Department of Agriculture report that Ringling Brothers causes "physical harm" to its baby elephants, and recent video footage of Ringling Brothers Employees hitting elephants.

"People go to the circus because they love animals," according to Nancy Blaney, Director of Government Affairs for The ASPCA, "not knowing they are unwittingly perpetuating the abuse this circus inflicts on elephants. As long as people continue to buy tickets, Ringling will continue to torment elephants."

The groups, joined by a former Ringling Brothers elephant worker, have sued Ringling Bros under the Endangered Species Act, which prohibits the " harming" of any animal that is listed as "endangered." Ringling Bros uses endangered Asian elephants in its circus. The case is pending in federal district court in Washington, DC.

The reports of routine chaining and beatings are based on several recent eye-witness accounts by Ringling Bros employees who recently left the circus and who have submitted sworn testimony to the to the U.S. Department of Agriculture that elephants are routinely kept in chains for as long as 20 hours a day, and that, from the time they are babies, they are beaten and repeatedly hit and prodded with sharp bullhooks in order to "break" them and make them perform " tricks" in the circus.

The organizations also point to a recent USDA investigation which found that Ringling Bros inflicted "large visible lesions" on baby elephants at its "Conservation Center" in Florida, when it forcibly separated the less than two-year-old babies from their mothers during what Ringling Brothers employees referred to as the "routine" separation process. After consulting an independent panel of elephant experts, in May 1999 the USDA informed Feld Entertainment, Ringling's parent company, that this treatment of the babies caused them "trauma and physical harm, " and was completely "unnecessary." In the wild, baby elephants learn important social and survival skills from their mothers and are not weaned until they are about four years old. Females stay with their mothers and the rest of their social units for their entire lives.

"All of this treatment violates the law," said Katherine Meyer, attorney with Meyer & Glitzenstein, who is handling the case against Ringling Brothers. "Both the Endangered Species Act and the Animal Welfare Act prohibit the abuse of these magnificent animals. It's time to put and end to this archaic practice."

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