Controversial Anti-Circus Billboards, Protests Welcome Ringling Bros. to Sacramento

Animal Protection Institute
Tuesday, 4 September 2001

Sacramento - When Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus opens in Sacramento tomorrow, it'll be greeted not by cheers and applause, but rather by billboards showing elephants in chains with the headline, "The Cruelest Show on Earth." The billboards, sponsored by United Animal Nations (UAN) and the Animal Protection Institute (API), encourage people to, "Say NO to Animal Circuses."

In addition to the billboards, there will be protests against the use of animals in circuses at ARCO Arena on OPENING NIGHT September 5 at 5:30 p.m. & September 9 at 4:30 p.m. We urge the media to include views of animal advocates in their coverage. Location of the billboards and spokespersons are available upon request.

Facts about Ringling Bros. Circus:

- May 1999 -- Ringling Bros. was warned by the Animal Care Division of the USDA for using ropes to forcibly remove two young elephants, Doc and Angelica, from their mothers. Visible scars were left on the legs of the young elephants.

- July 1999 -- Benjamin, a four-year-old elephant mysteriously drowned while on a stopover from Houston to Dallas, TX.

- June 2000 -- A former Ringling Bros. employee testified before the U.S. Congress that elephants in the circus "live in confinement and ... are beaten all the time when they don't perform properly."

- July 2000 -- Ringling Bros. was cited by the USDA for failing to provide tigers with adequate water while traveling across the desert from Las Vegas to Fresno. Ringling was also cited for lack of proper ventilation in a tiger transportation vehicle which caused the temperature to rise to dangerous levels. One tiger injured an eye and broke off a tooth while attempting to escape from his overheated cage.

"When you buy a ticket to the circus, the animals pay the price," asserts Alan Berger, API Executive Director. "Unnatural living conditions, brutal training methods, and a stressful life of travel are common to animals used in all circuses. These conditions can in no way compare to a life of freedom in their natural habitat. We're placing the billboards to remind people -- the only humane circuses are those that don't use animals."

"As advanced as humans are, we have not advanced to a state of compassion where we no longer want to see animals doing unnatural things in an unnatural environment," charges Jeane Westin, UAN President. "We want the message of 'The Cruelest Show on Earth' to bring people to that kind of new awareness."

For more information, or to contact Animal Protection Institute, see their website at: www.api4animals.org