FORMER RINGLING PERFORMER URGES PEOPLE TO STAY AWAY FROM THE CIRCUS

Phoenix Native Says She Witnessed Elephant Beatings

For Immediate Release:
July 5, 2006

Contact:
Lisa Wathne 757-622-7382

Phoenix — Holding tools of the circus trade—including a bullhook and a can of "wonder dust," the gray powder used by trainers to hide bloody bullhook wounds on elephants—Phoenix native and former Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey employee Jodey Eliseo will lead a PETA protest outside the U.S. Airways Center to alert people to the abuse of elephants and other animals by the circus:

Date: Wednesday, July 5
Time: 6 p.m.
Place: Main entrance to the U.S. Airways Center, 201 E. Jefferson St.

Eliseo, a professional dancer who toured with Ringling Bros., frequently saw elephants abused with bullhooks during her two years with the circus. She reports that Ringling handlers beat an elephant for stumbling during a performance; that a teenage elephant named Sophie was covered with bullhook wounds as a result of frequent beatings; and that a baby elephant was severely beaten as punishment for bolting and smashing through a wall at a civic center.

Ringling has repeatedly failed to meet minimum standards for animal care as established by the federal Animal Welfare Act. Ringling paid $20,000 to settle charges of failure to provide veterinary care to a dying baby elephant and is currently the subject of four investigations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for possible violations of the Animal Welfare Act. The USDA is investigating the death of a 2-year-old African lion named Clyde, who apparently died of heatstroke while traveling through the Mojave Desert; the death of an 8-month-old elephant named Riccardo, who was destroyed after fracturing both hind legs when he fell off a circus pedestal; an incident in which two young elephants ran amok inside a Puerto Rico arena; and the excessive use of a steel-tipped bullhook on a chained 7-year-old elephant.

"I chose a hectic, stressful life on the road—the animals didn’t," says Eliseo. "I saw how animals in the circus are routinely beaten; they live in constant fear. For them, the circus is a real-life horror show."
 

Sanctuary Information Video