THE BALLOON MAN

Circus still receiving threats over acts

 

 

Georgina Boswell of the Brian Boswell Circus chats to the Daily News during the Scottburgh leg of their tour. Only farm animals will be entertaining circus-goers. Picture: Jacques Naude
from:  iol.co.za
By NOELENE BARBEAU AND DUDU ZWANE
 June 12 2013
Durban - After being publicly vilified for an “isolated incident” involving animal abuse last year, management of Brian Boswell’s Circus says they are being victimised by a malicious group of protesters.

Footage aired by Carte Blanche showing a former handler at the circus whipping an elephant enraged activists who have since staged pickets on several occasions.

Now as the circus heads for the Bluff next week, and central Durban after that, protesters are preparing for another confrontation against the use of wild animal acts and are planning to stage protests daily.

Bluff activists are urging locals to boycott the circus and have written to the hosts, the Dutch Club, asking them to cancel the contract with Brian Boswell’s Circus. The circus – minus the elephants and lions acts because of the weather – is currently in Scottburgh.

Despite publicly declaring that they would consider not using wild animals at shows if circus-goers were against them, the family-owned circus and entertainment company said the threats continued.

“It is very difficult to deal with, because people hide behind their Facebook pages and send me threats, telling me they hope my family dies a slow and miserable death,” said Georgina Boswell, whose father, Brian, started the circus.

“I respect people’s opinions and we do everything to keep our public happy, but honestly I feel like my family business is being persecuted by a minority group of illegal protesters who should be arrested,” she said.

“We have regular surveys and we had said that if our supporters were against us using wild animals, we would consider it. But based on feedback from the surveys, 100 percent of people who come to the show say they enjoy having them there,” Boswell said.

“We have 60 people here. Right now, we don’t have any wild animals in our show because we change it around based on the weather and what we think our people want to see. So the trapeze artists, clowns and our employees face being deprived of their only source of income.”
read more:
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/circus-still-receiving-threats-over-acts-1.1531307