AR-News: circus abuse of elephants - Live on-line today at noon

Mon Apr 5 12:42:43 EDT 2004

Live on-line Monday at noon (EST, 5 p.m. Greenwich) on 
http://www.GoVeganTexas.org and http://www.KPFT.org

Coming Soon!
to the Houston International Festival:
"Have Trunk, Will Travel"
Five Live Asian Elephants
Tai, Dixie, Rosie, Kitty and Becky

"Live Asian elephants! Long revered as a national symbol of Thailand, these 
iconic creatures will make their debut in the form of five professionally 
trained female pachyderms.  These elephants will delight the young and 
young-at-heart as they give rides, paint and teach art, play ball, pose for 
photos and show-off with four performances each weekend day... a unique 
opportunity to interact with the "girls" up close and learn about their 
importance in Thailand."
--- from Houston International Festival website

Spotlighting Thailand, April 17 & 18, 24 & 25
Riding Elephants ...  Courting Disaster
Elephants in Entertainment

'Sit up. Stand up. Stand on your head. Take a bow."
Look human. Look ridiculous, or we'll goad you, beat you, prick you.

It might be thought that an elephant would be hard to humiliate, but it has 
humbly allowed people to try.
---  from Sacred Elephant

Go Vegan Texas!
Monday at 11am (CST)
90.1 FM-Houston and 89.5 FM-Galveston

Guests:

Nicole Meyer
Elephant specialist,  PETA

Jane Garrison
World renowned  elephant specialist, formerly with PETA

Jack Stevenson
Undercover Investigator, 1991-2001
commissioned by PETA to work in Carson & Barnes Circus

"In the interest of safety, the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) 
strongly encourages members to discontinue public elephant rides."
--- AZA News, January 2000, New Elephant Policies

"Using elephants for gimmicky rides is both inhumane and dangerous."
--- Nicole Meyer. PETA Elephant Speciali

"With elephant rides, it is not the children the elephant resents, it is the 
dominance of the trainer and the  'coercion and negative reinforcement'  the 
captive elephant receives in training ... (and) that they are forced to walk 
around and around in circles at the pace the trainer dictates, a 'mundane' 
task for an extremely intelligent animal with a memory capacity ten times 
our own."
--- Carol Buckley, co-founder, The Elephant Sanctuary

"Some trainers can be very abusive.  If the elephant is less than 
cooperative, they will force her to walk by striking her on the legs and 
body with a fiberglass rod and jabbing her with a steel hook.   Even 
(without the abuse), the lifestyle forced upon performing and ride elephants 
in no way addresses their biological needs to migrate, function in a herd 
environment and consume hundreds of pounds of live growing vegetation 
daily."
--- Carol Buckley, co-founder, The Elephant Sanctuary

"Captive elephants are forced to perform through intimidation and beatings. 
Have Trunk Will Travel has issued a written endorsement of the use of 
painful electrical-shock devices called "hot shots" to discipline and 
control elephants."
--- PETA press release  (November 2003)

³I¹m not about to claim I know how much pain the elephant is feeling (from 
electric shocks).  All I know is that they are screaming, that they are 
trumpeting, that there is literally diarrhea flying out of them, there¹s pee 
all over the place.  They¹re obviously trying to get away from it.  You 
know, every single time I¹ve seen it used on them they flinch or tried to 
get away.  So, something is happening there. Š They¹re afraid of it, and 
obviously the people that are using it Š.²
--- Jack Stevenson,  PETA undercover investigator

³Sink that hook into Œem Š when you hear that screaming then you know you 
got their attention.  Right here in the barn.  You can¹t do it on the road.  
I¹m not gonna touch her in front of a thousand people.  She¹s gonna f--- do 
what I want and that¹s just f--- the way it is.  Make Œem holler, let Œem 
run from ya¹.²
--- Tim Frisco, elephant trainer, Carson and Barnes Circus, from PETA 
undercover footage

Since 1990, documented elephant rampages have resulted in 65 deaths, as well 
as more than 130 injuries to handlers and members of the public.  Elephant 
rampages are a result of animals¹ rebelling against a life of abuse and 
deprivation.

On February 1, 1992,  while performing with the Great American Circus in 
Palm Bay, Florida,  a 27-year-old Asian elephant named  Janet ran amok with 
five children on her back. Years of chains, bull hooks, and terror had taken 
their toll. Janet injured 12 people, threw a police officer to the ground, 
knocked over bleachers, and attacked several vehicles before being shot and 
killed by police in a hail of gunfire.

Tim Frisco was Janet¹s trainer...and Jack Stevenson,  a PETA investigator 
documented evidence of abusive treatment received during Frisco's elephant 
training sessions from 1999-2001 at Carson & Barnes Circus.  Jack will be 
one of our guests this morning on Go Vegan Texas! as we discuss elephants in 
captivity and go the behind the scenes to hear his eyewitness account of the 
training of elephants for the entertainment industry.

In light of the upcoming Houston International Festival's Spotlight on 
Thailand and five live Asian elephants coming to entertain festival goers 
with rides, art classes, and four daily  performances each weekend day, we 
focus today's program  on elephants in captivity whose lives are spent on 
the road performing for audiences and question the safety issue about wild 
animals coming in such close contact with the public.

Have Trunk Will Travel is the group bringing the elephants to Houston. Last 
November, PETA protested their participation in elephant rides with the  
Santa Ana (CA) warning Zoo Director Ron Glazier, about the dangers of 
allowing the public to come into contact with wild animals and urged the zoo 
to stop providing elephant rides to visitors.

PETA pointed out that the organization that accredits zoos, the American Zoo 
and Aquarium Association, issued a formal recommendation in 2000 for zoos to 
stop offering elephant rides. In addition, they  noted Have Trunk Will 
Travel, had a prior troubling incident in June 2001, when one of their 
elephants performing at the Denver Zoo ran amok for three hours, threw her 
trainer against a wall, and knocked over a mother and her baby.

Nicole Meyer, current Elephant Specialist for PETA, and Jane Garrison,  a 
world renowned Elephant Specialist, formerly with PETA, will discuss the 
safety issues of this animal entertainment industry.

Michol Rantschler, UH student of journalism, will co host this week's focus 
on elephant performers  in captivity.  Michol had an Op Ed published in the 
Houston Chronicle (March 23, 2004) on the cruelty inherent in rodeos:  
Bucking for the Days When Rodeos are History.

So, please tune in at 11am (CST) today.

Thank you for listening,
Janice Blue
Host, Go Vegan Texas!
Now weekly every Monday at 11am (CST)
On Pacifica Radio
KPFT, 90.1 FM - Houston and 89.5 FM - Galveston

Listen Live on www.GovVeganTexas.org
(Just Click on the Cow's Ears)
Or later on www.KPFTarchive.org

Every animal you eat
Was running for her life.
-------------------------------
Show Compassion, Go Vegan!

Contact Information on Today's Guest & Co-Host:

Michol Rantschler
journalism student, University of Houston
Her Op Ed,  Bucking for the Days When Rodeos are History was published in 
The Houston Chronicle, March 23, 2004.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/2462633

Nicole Meyer & Jack Stevenson
http://peta.org
http://www.circuses.com

To view the Carson & Barnes video, go to:
http://www.circuses.com/takeaction.html

Note:  The video footage that PETA¹s investigator filmed is representative 
of the  systematic abuse that animals in circuses regularly receive. Please 
help  by ordering a copy of the videotape to take to your local television 
stations or print media or to show to friends and family who might be 
considering going to the circus or elephants performing in public.

Houston International Festival:
"Elephant Zone" & Have Trunk, Will Travel
http://www.ifest.org/ifest2004/entertainment/Elephantzone.cfm

_________________________________________________________________
Free up your inbox with MSN Hotmail Extra Storage! Multiple plans available. 
http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-us&page=hotmail/es2&ST=1/go/onm00200362ave/direct/01/