AR-News: Elephant Abuse Charges Add Fuel to Circus Debate

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Onderwerp: Elephant Abuse Charges Add Fuel to Circus Debate

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0406_040406_circuselephants.html#main


Elephant Abuse Charges Add Fuel to Circus Debate

Maryann Mott
for National Geographic News
April 6, 2004

Should elephants perform in circuses?

It's a simple question that's caused a lot of controversy over the
years.

At the heart of the matter are allegations by animal-welfare activists
that
brutal training methods are used to coerce elephants-which can weigh as
much as 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms)-into performing tricks such as
headstands.

Activists aren't the only ones concerned. Some three dozen communities
in
15 U.S. states ban, restrict, or regulate animal performances.
Localities
that have banned circuses, rodeos, and other animal acts include
Stamford,
Connecticut; Hollywood, Florida; Boulder, Colorado; and Pasadena,
California.

Denver may soon be added to the list. Residents there will vote in
August
on whether to ban circuses with animal acts from performing within the
city
limits. The city council was obliged to put the question on the ballot
after a 15-year-old girl collected the required 6,000 signatures.

In Massachusetts citizens will vote on a statewide ban on circus animals
later this year.

The use of elephants, the largest of the land mammals, for amusement
draws
particular umbrage from activists. About 300 Asian and African elephants
are believed to be living in North America's zoos and circuses. Many of
them are kept in conditions that are far removed from their natural
habitat
of large tracts of wilderness. Circuses particularly are under fire.

Dominique Jando, creative director of the Circus Center in San
Francisco,
says only a small, vocal group of people opposes circuses with
performing
animals. The nonprofit organization operates the San Francisco School of
Circus Arts, the New Pickle Circus (a professional performing company),
and
a student-performing troupe, the San Francisco Youth Circus. The New
Pickle
Circus is one of about 20 circuses in the U.S. that does not use animals
in
its shows.

Circus operators frequently survey audiences, and the vast majority of
people want to see animals, especially elephants, Jando said.

"We are in a very urban civilization, which means people will complain
about wild animals in captivity or complain about methods of training,
which is completely ridiculous," he said. "It doesn't mean that there
have
not been people brutalizing animals. But it's not a rule-far from it."

Cruelty and Ignorance

Animal trainer Pat Derby has worked on the set of popular television
shows
like Flipper, Gun Smoke, and Lassie. What she discovered behind the
glitz
and glamour of Hollywood, she says, was a profession rampant with
cruelty
and ignorance.

In 1984 Derby founded the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS),
which
operates three large sanctuaries in California for abused animal actors.

Currently five Asian elephants live at one of the sanctuaries.

Derby said she has developed a method of elephant handling that does not
use chains or bull hooks-three-foot-long (one-meter-long) tools shaped
like
fireplace pokers.

Derby's facility was the first to use the "nondominance" technique
successfully, she says, and it has been a model for elephant handlers
around the country.

Unfortunately, the method won't work with circus elephants. Using force
to
bully and boss the giant creatures, Derby says, is the only way to
quickly
load them into a truck or trailer for transportation-or to have them
perform on cue.

The constant traveling, up to 50 weeks a year, is also detrimental to
the
mental and physical well-being of circus animals, she said. Elephants
are
transported from one city to the next in railroad cars or truck
semi-trailers. Trips can last from a few hours to several days.

"The release of elephants from traveling shows is critical," Derby said.
"They really don't have the opportunity in a circus community for any
kind
of a good quality of life."

In the wild, elephants migrate over long distances and live in highly
intelligent and well-structured social groups. But in circuses, Derby
said,
they don't have much opportunity to bond with other elephants. And if
they
do, those relationships are often severed when one is traded or sold.

Behavioral Studies

Ted Friend, a professor at Texas A&M University's Department of Animal
Science in College Station, has conducted several behavioral studies on
circus elephants, including one on the effects of transportation.

A time-lapse video camera was used to record the behavior of elephants
while traveling in semi-trailers and railroad cars. The animals were
owned
by four circus operators: Clyde Beatty (now called Cole Brothers),
Hawthorn
Corporation, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, and Carson & Barnes.

Elephants were frequently observed weaving-a repetitive shifting of
weight
from side to side. While doing this, they also ate, threw hay on their
backs, and looked out the window.

The 2001 study concluded that weaving during transport did not appear to
be
indicative of poor welfare, because the elephants were engaged in other
activities and not in a trancelike state.

In a telephone interview Friend said the behavior is not an indication
that
the animals are psychotic or stressed.

Increased weaving has also been observed prior to elephants being given
hay
or water and before performing. Friend, who is a certified animal
behaviorist, believes the elephants weave repetitively in anticipation,
or
excitement, of what is about to occur.

The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), which conducts routine
inspections
of circuses to make sure they are in compliance with the Animal Welfare
Act.

Elephants Impounded

The USDA is the only agency with authority to enforce the Animal Welfare
Act.

On March 17, 2004, APHIS inspectors, for the first time in the history
of
the agency, ordered the removal of an entire heard of circus elephants
from
an Illinois company because of mistreatment and mishandling.

John F. Cuneo, owner of Hawthorn Corporation, admitted guilt on 19
charges
of violating the Animal Welfare Act, including failing to handle
elephants
in a manner that did not cause physical harm, behavioral stress, and
trauma.

The 16 elephants, two of which tested positive for tuberculosis, must be
placed in new homes by August 15. The company also agreed to pay a fine
of
U.S. $200,000.

While encouraged by the USDA's settlement with Hawthorn, animal rights
activists claim federal investigators don't enforce the law when it
comes
to Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, one of the biggest, and most
famous, circuses in the country.

Michael Markarian, president of the Fund For Animals in Silver Spring,
Maryland, says his organization has compiled a report containing
hundreds
of records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The report
shows the USDA closed investigations prematurely and overrode its own
inspectors' determinations of violation of the law-allowing Ringling
Brothers to claim that there is no truth to any allegations that it
abuses
its elephants.

The Fund for Animals, the Animal Welfare Institute, and the American
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) filed a lawsuit
against Ringling Brothers in 2000 for alleged mistreatment, including
beating its Asian elephants with bull hooks, constant chaining, and
forcible separation of babies from their mothers.

The lawsuit is the first of its kind and is expected to be heard early
next
year in the federal district court in Washington, D.C., says attorney
Katherine Meyer, who represents the animal-welfare groups.

Spokespeople for the USDA and Ringling Brothers said they do not comment
on
pending litigation.

In a September 2003 press release, Ringling states, "The fact that our
record is an admirable one is clearly upsetting to ASPCA. Unable to find
evidence to support its wild accusations against Ringling Bros., ASPCA
has
turned on the USDA in an apparent attempt to intimidate this federal
agency."

Ringling "Has an Excellent Record"

On its Web site, Ringling states that the display and care of elephants
and
other performing animals are subject to animal-welfare laws and
regulations
at the federal, state, and local levels. "Ringling Bros. has an
excellent
record of care for all our animals," the circus company says.

Tom Rider, a former Ringling Brothers employee, travels around the
country
speaking out against what he calls the "systematic daily abuse of circus
elephants."

 From June 1997 to November 1999, Rider worked as an afternoon "barn
man"
whose job was to feed and clean up after the elephants.

He claims to have seen handlers hitting elephants with bull hooks behind
their heads, legs, and ears. Afterward, he said, the elephants had
large,
bleeding wounds.

"Most of the time the hitting was done because they wouldn't do the
command
fast enough," Rider said. "One time, my boss was mad at his wife and
came
in and beat the elephants."

Rider said he also has videotapes showing harsh, abusive treatment by
Ringling Brothers employees. The footage, he said, was taken between
1992
and 2003.

Ringling says its training methods are based on reinforcement in the
form
of food rewards and words of praise. The company says verbal or physical
abuse and the withholding of food or water are strictly prohibited.

Rider is part of the lawsuit against Ringling. In the past his traveling
expenses were paid for by the ASPCA and the Fund for Animals. Rider is
currently being paid by a California woman, but he would not reveal her
name or comment further on the relationship.

"I'm not in this for a living," Rider said. "I've devoted my life to
these
elephants, and until these elephants are out of the Ringling Brothers
circus, this is what I'm going to do."

Endangered Species?

The controversy surrounding circus elephants and their treatment may be
dying a natural death-not because of city bans or a truce between
activists
and circuses, but because the captive elephant population in North
America's zoos and circuses is not reproducing fast enough to sustain
itself.

Whereas there are an estimated 300 elephants currently in captivity in
North American zoos and circuses, one study predicts that in 50 years
only
17 elephants will be left, and those will be too old to breed.

The Endangered Species Act currently prohibits the import of Asian
elephants without a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. To
obtain a permit, requests must show that the activity would enhance the
survival of the elephants in the wild and that the animals would not be
used primarily for commercial purposes.

In October a change to the law was proposed that would allow zoos and
circuses to import Asian elephants. The resulting public opposition
caused
the agency to review the proposed amendment. A final decision has not
been
made, according to a spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service.






the wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. he is in front of it - axel munthe

"Never doubt that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world. 
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."      Margaret Mead
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