Activists protest treatment of circus animals

More than 30 protesters gathered in front of the TD Garden on Saturday to protest the alleged cruelty of the Ringling Brothers Circus toward the animals used in its shows.

“We don’t believe they should be abused for entertainment,” said Taylor Lewallen, a Boston University College of Communication junior and BU Vegetarian Society officer.

Lewallen said that she hoped the demonstration would change people’s attitudes toward animal cruelty.

“Protesting is very effective. It gets info out, but also it makes people think,” Lewallen said. “Maybe next year they won’t go. Also, it just hassles the Ringling Brothers.”

Members of the BU Vegetarian Society, Mass. Animal Rights Coalition and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals held up signs to the passing cars and pedestrians that read “Ringling Bros 23 Dead Elephants And Counting,” or “These Animals Belong in Sanctuaries.”

Members of MARC have been protesting Ringling Bros. for years because they have failed to meet minimal federal standards for the care of animals used in exhibition as established by the Animal Welfare Act, said MARC executive director and co-founder Helen Rayshick.

“We are here on our free will, but the elephants at the circus are not,” said MARC protestor Corey Grant.
Since 2000, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has cited Ringling Bros. numerous times for AWA violations, according to a PETA flyer.

“[Ringling Bros.] just pay the fine and don’t change anything,” said MARC volunteer Mimi Ryerson.
One citation of the Ringling Bros. was that they euthanized Lima, a zebra that fled the circus and ran loose through downtown Atlanta for more than 40 minutes, as a result of injuries he sustained during his escape in 2010.

In July, Ringling Bros. euthanized Putzi, a 49-year-old female Asian elephant who has been captured in the wild and shipped to the circus as an infant in 1964.

Local business owner Jill Goldman said she had received free tickets for the circus.

“We will never go to the circus again— it was horrifying,” Goldman said after leaving the circus. “Seeing the baby elephants, you can just tell that they don’t want to be there.”

Goldman’s three-year-old son, Tansen, said that they would go back in “when the elephants are gone.”

“I support their right to protest,” said Laurie Horne, a government employee who attended the show. “They are giving up their weekends to come here, so they must really believe it. I agree with some of it, but I’m still going to the circus.”

Rayshick said MARC’s mission is to get the public to realize that the circus is not family entertainment and to stop supporting its cruelty.

In general, she said, circuses are awful places for animals because the animals should be wild. However, she said that there are a lot of good circuses such as Circus Smirkus and Cirque du Soleil, which are more expensive, but do not use animals in their shows.

Circuses that use animals train their animals to be docile with flames, bullhooks and other means, Rayshick said. The elephants spend their entire lives in chains.

Andy Auyeung, a member of both MARC and PETA, said that in general animals should not be enslaved, caged for life, taught tricks and have reinforced learning, such as beating, used on them.

“I believe other people do have the heart, they just don’t have the facts,” Auyeung said. “If they think about it, there must be a lot of unjust things that happen. I think people would agree with us if they can connect all these things together.”