Protesting Torture at Ringling Brothers' Circus

Wisdom Quarterly

(OfficialPETA) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal's 2009 investigation of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus found that workers were beating, electro-shocking, whipping, tying, and hooking elephants and striking tigers. Shocking footage shows the torment behind animal circuses that exploit animals. (The same or worse holds true for rodeos). What can compassionate people do? It's easy. Avoid circuses. There is no need to demonstrate on the streets as activists are doing today July 20, 2011 in downtown Los Angeles as Ringling Brothers attempts to begin a stint of animal-exploitation shows. There is no need to write letters or boycott a company. Simply stay home if a visit to a circus was planned.

• RinglingBeatsAnimals.com

LA Protesters Stand Up to Circus

(Repenney)

Last year nearly 300 anti-cruelty advocates and activists came together at the Staples Center to protest the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus.

This circus has frequently come under attack from activists and authorities alike for its pattern of abuse and cruelty towards captive animals forced to perform demeaning entertainments, suffer in cages, lacking sufficient exercise, nutrition, and care. The elephants are showing signs of arthritis as a result.

Ringling Bros. has been cited and fined numerous times for animal cruelty. In a moment of bitter irony the LA police attempted to arrest an LCA activist for displaying a "bullhook," a device frequently used to torment elephants by Ringling Bros.

"We don't want to shut down the circus," one activist was heard to say. "We just want them to eliminate the use of animals." Note: Cirque du Soleil, Bindlestiff Family Circus, and The Little Russian Circus are all animal-free.

Annual Protests Until Reform
In spite of being cited and fined by the USDA for animal cruelty, Ringling Bros continues to profit from its abuses. Members of groups participating in the protest included ISSAC, OCPA, IDA, LCA, PETA Los Angeles, Animal Defenders International, and ASPCA among many others. For much of the time, the protesters outnumbered the circus-goers waiting in line at the venue.

Trainers cruelly wrestle baby elephants using ropes, sharp
hooks, and electric shocks to force them to do tricks. More

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Hare Krishna panhandlers banned from LAX

Court rules in favor of LAX, against Hare Krishnas
(Contra Costa Times) The state's high court ruled today that the Los Angeles airport (LAX) has the right to regulate how and where Hare Krishna members and other solicitors [panhandle and beg for money, which they have long been doing to support their Krishna/Christ Consciousness devotional movement in a manner that bothered nearly everyone confronted with various underhanded tactics]...

• PHOTOS: cartoon (joyoftech.com); founder of the Hare Krishna organization, Sri Prahbupada, with Western devotees at airport (krishna.org)
• Calif. Supreme Court: Can preach but not ask for donations

Cyberbegging: Panhandling Online

Cyberbegging Takes Panhandling Online
Pam Fessler (NPR, Morning Edition, Dec. 9, 2009)

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Each year, more and more people are going online for their holiday shopping, but in these hard times, the Internet is also becoming a place where people in need can ask for a handout. There are thousands of appeals on craigslist and on other Web sites devoted to begging, such as Begslist, CyberBeg, and DonateMoney2me.com.

And the appeals are heart-wrenching. A single mom with no money to pay her bills; an unemployed construction worker about to lose his house. And, of course, lots of families who can't afford gifts for Christmas. Certainly some of these appeals are scams, but many appear to be legitimate pleas for help. More>>

Thailand's cruel, criminal elephant begging

Dan Rivers (CNN)

Good treatment during "Elephant Day" celebrations on 3/13/09 contrasts with widespread exploitation in Thailand (Xinhua).

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A lumbering grey shadow can often catch your eye as you drive along one of Bangkok's most polluted and congested streets, Sukhumvit. A new plan aims to return street elephants to the wild by paying owners for the animals.

Dan Rivers' Report on Elephant Begging

If this were not Bangkok, you would think you'd had one too many beer Singhas. But in this city of contradictions, anything seems, and often is, possible. And so it is that spotting a huge elephant, dodging the tuk-tuk motorcycle rickshaws, the ubiquitous taxis, and blizzard of traffic is nothing out of the ordinary.

I remember seeing my first elephant just outside the front gates of our home here -- and standing in wonderment -- it seemed magical and slightly surreal. I stood and the elephant owner insisted I gave him a dollar -- which I did, just to have the chance to feed this huge creature and stroke its rough, scaly trunk.

But I was naive, like so many tourists and newcomers here, as to the cruelty involved in this "elephant begging."

Over the next three years, I started to notice more and more elephants and see how some seemed distressed; shaking their massive heads from side to side, their eyelash-framed eyes wide with concern and bloodshot. I wondered why it was allowed and why the government did not do something about it.

But then talking to friends and colleagues here I soon realized that this was a problem that successive governors had tried and failed to tackle -- perhaps running up against vested interests and unscrupulous businessmen, who invest in elephants like they would a good stock or a race-horse.

The elephants were often run by criminal gangs and could bring in a healthy $30 per animal per day I was told -- not bad money in Thailand.

But now, authorities say elephant begging is going to be phased out with a mixture of financial inducements and tougher fines. A foundation with links to Thailand's Queen is offering to buy elephants from their owners for more than $20,000 -- hoping the owners will instead use the money to buy land or start a more conventional business. The fine for bringing an elephant into the city will rise from just a few dollars to a few thousand. More>>

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