OABA CIRCUS UNIT MEETING - Crowne Plaza - Tampa, FL - 9:30 PM - Friday, February 13, 2009.
SPECIAL OFFER: Anyone attending and purchases the circus book, "SPANGLES, Elephants, Violets and Me" will receive one OABA Camel Pin. Victoria Cristiani Rossi, author and OABA Member will be signing in the CROWNE PLAZA Lobby. Victoria will donate all book profits for the day to the OABA CIRCUS FUND..
Hope to see you on the 13th...
David Orr, OABA Circus Fan Representative CFA Animal Committee Member
updated 7:36 p.m. ET, Wed., Feb. 4, 2009WASHINGTON - The treatment of circus elephants went on trial in a U.S court Wednesday with animal-rights groups accusing Ringling Bros. of violating the Endangered Species Act when it uses bullhooks and chains to control its performing pachyderms.
During opening statements, the two sides showed dueling videos that painted vastly different portraits of the animals' lives under the big top.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Animal Welfare Institute and other activist groups say they will prove that Asian elephants are injured physically and emotionally by their treatment in the circus.The groups say long hours traveling to more than 40 cities a year by train harms the highly social and intelligent animals, and they want Ringling Bros. to stop using them in their shows.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and its parent company, Feld Entertainment, say the activists are just philosophically opposed to animals living in captivity and want to destroy a beloved American family tradition.
Defense lawyer John Simpson said the circus is nothing without its elephants, and the tools are needed for safety and are not harmful to the animals.
"For them to come in here and say they are not against the circus is like saying they aren't against baseball but the use of bats and balls," Simpson said. He said the circus would not shy from the dispute with animal-rights proponents, no matter what it costs. "As far as we're concerned, bring it on," Simpson said.
Differing accounts"All right, the battle lines are drawn here," U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said as he took the bench for the opening statements. He told both sides it is never too late to settle, drawing laughter from the two sides who have been arguing since the case was filed in 2000.
The two sides gave vastly different descriptions of the main training tool, which resembles a fireplace poker or cane with a metal tip curved down to a point.
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Katherine Meyer, arguing for the animal-rights groups, showed a bullhook in court and said it's used to jab, prod and beat the elephants on a daily basis, resulting in puncture wounds, bloody lacerations and infections.
Simpson preferred the term "guide" when describing the instrument, which he said is used as an extension of the handler's arm to reach up to the animals. He pushed the hook into the palm of his hand and used it to scratch behind his ear and said even if it might be painful to a human, elephants are much larger animals with thicker skin.
He did not deny that the bullhook sometimes punctures the animals' skin, but said if that is prevented by the Endangered Species Act than so would shots, surgery and other veterinary practices.
Simpson argued that the circus' elephant breeding is helping propagate the species and "may well be their best defense in the battle against extinction."
Feld Entertainment has 54 Asian elephants, 19 which travel and perform and 35 which live at the company's 200-acre conservatory in Florida. The newest, born a few minutes before Inauguration day, was named Barack after the new president and was the first conceived by artificial insemination.
Katherine Meyer, arguing for the animal-rights groups, showed a bullhook in court and said it's used to jab, prod and beat the elephants on a daily basis, resulting in puncture wounds, bloody lacerations and infections.
Simpson preferred the term "guide" when describing the instrument, which he said is used as an extension of the handler's arm to reach up to the animals. He pushed the hook into the palm of his hand and used it to scratch behind his ear and said even if it might be painful to a human, elephants are much larger animals with thicker skin.
He did not deny that the bullhook sometimes punctures the animals' skin, but said if that is prevented by the Endangered Species Act than so would shots, surgery and other veterinary practices.
Simpson argued that the circus' elephant breeding is helping propagate the species and "may well be their best defense in the battle against extinction."
Feld Entertainment has 54 Asian elephants, 19 which travel and perform and 35 which live at the company's 200-acre conservatory in Florida. The newest, born a few minutes before Inauguration day, was named Barack after the new president and was the first conceived by artificial insemination.
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