PETA go home!!

So, this morning my husband left the newspaper open for me to the article that accompanied this photo:

You can read the blurb that went with it here.

And my response to those three accusations is "Untrue, Untrue, Untrue!!!" Now I have to be careful of what I write beyond that response, for fear that PETA will one day find this blog and quote some small piece out of context that makes it sound like I'm saying something that I'm not. I've already changed the words I originally wrote in place of "I'm saying something that I'm not." What a pain. And while I worked for Ringling, I wouldn't even have dared to write anything on this issue, positive, negative or otherwise because no matter what I said, they would have added some ellipses and made it sound bad.

Anyway, my husband I worked for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey for a short time (that's where we met) and can say from first hand experience that PETA does not know what they are talking about in relation to Ringling Bros. I cannot speak in relation to other circuses, as I have not worked for any other circus, but considering their lack of research and knowledge about the current conditions at Ringling, I would be loathe to believe any claims they make. My opinion is that PETA is working with 60+ year old information and 60+ year old photos and then lumping all circuses, past and present, into one and making generalizations.

Unfortunately, PETA members protesting the circus seem to be young (from what I've seen around the country), often college students who not only think they can change the world by themselves, but also that it's their duty to do so, violently if necessary. I have watched several of them get arrested, and it seems such a shame, since the acts they claim to be protesting against are absolute works of fiction. I wish these kids would spend more time checking out the claims made by PETA before blindly following them into situations that could be detrimental to their future lives in the world.

There are a few key things to know about Ringling Brothers:

• First of all, the animals are treated better than the two-legged employees. For example, there are several vet techs that travel with the show and 2 vets that visit at least once a month each, but there aren't any doctors, nurses, physical therapists, etc for the people.


• Secondly, USDA inspectors arrive on the three touring units every few months for inspections. There are sometimes minor problems (the carrots are being stored in a refrigerated truck that is 2 degrees too warm, perhaps) but not major problems, particularly with the health and well-being of the animals.


• Thirdly, although I agree that wild animals should not have been taken from the wild in the first place, that happened many years ago and we can't change the fact that it happened. Happily, people are more educated now about that and animals are no longer taken from the wild legally. Since most animals currently in captivity cannot be safely released into the wild, Ringling Brothers continues to do the world a favor by breeding these (mostly endangered) animals and working with them in the traveling shows. One day there will no longer be Asian elephants in the wild - what does PETA want then? No elephants anywhere on this planet?

I absolutely support wildlife preservation groups and animal welfare groups, but I encourage any of you who agree with me to support any group OTHER than PETA. They (as an organization, not necessarily each individual member) are uninformed and don't seem to want to get informed. They also seem to enjoy being disruptive and handing disturbing photos to small children just before they go to see The Greatest Show on Earth.

And when the circus comes to your town, go see it. (If you live in Pittsburgh, it will be here Nov 2-6.) It's really a great show and well done.
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So, I wrote the post above 2 days ago and decided not to publish it right away, because I was afraid I was being a bit harsh on PETA. So I went and checked out their website. And it made me even madder. I was wrong - they're not uninformed, they're worse. They're selectively informed. They take every incident on the circus and spin it so that it sounds bad. They mention that two of the baby elephants on Ringling have foot problems and are often sent off the road as a result. Well, that's GOOD that they're sent back to the Center for Elephant Conservation to have their feet taken care of!! Elephants notoriously have foot problems. It's not a result of being out with the circus. And the alpacas that they speak of are Felix, Jasper, and the one whose name I can't remember. Felix is an albino, so if he had vision problems it doesn't surprise me. The nameless one (boy, I wish I could remember his name) had some leg problems, but that didn't develop on the road. I remember being in Lexington, KY and sending the elephant Rebecca home to the CEC - she was being retired from circus life because she was having some problems keeping up. Animals get old just like people and Ringling treats the older animals with as much care and love as the younger ones.

Another thing that just gets me going about PETA is that they find disgruntled employees who've been fired (usually for coming to work drunk, not coming to work at all, using a variety of controlled substances, or, in rare cases, harming the animals themselves, which is grounds for IMMEDIATE dismissal) and PAY them to sign an affidavit testifying to some cruelty of some sort. They have an affidavit up there signed by Frank Hagan, a man who I hired (stupid, stupid, stupid me) to work on the floor crew, NOT the animal crew. While I was on the circus, he once went out to a bar after the show, started buying rounds of drinks for the whole bar, claimed to be the tiger trainer, and then skipped out on the tab, prompting the police to show up at the train looking for him at 3am. The General Manager was woken up to deal with it. Boy, if I had been the one woken up, he'd have been fired on the spot. Anyway, his claim of being the tiger trainer was a lie then, so I wouldn't be surprised if he lied about being a lion handler on his PETA affidavit.

It's a pity that these are the types of people hired on the circus, but it's even more of a pity that PETA takes such advantage of them.

I've got to stop now or I'm going to start beating something. And it won't be my cats, I promise.