AR-News: (USA) Circuses deception regarding conservation

[molly]

      Posted on Mon, May. 10, 2004





      Circuses' elephant conservation programs fatally flawed

      BY HEATHER MOORE AND KATHY GUILLERMO

      People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals


      (KRT) - Five-year-old Jennie, an Asian elephant traveling with the
Carson & Barnes Circus, died last month in Hugo, Okla., after contracting an
elephant herpes virus. Jennie's death is the latest evidence that the circus
world's programs to "save" endangered species by breeding them are a sham.

      Jennie was "the first successful live birth after several decades of
efforts" by the circus' Endangered Ark Foundation breeding program. While
circuses such as Carson & Barnes and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey
Circus try to put a conservation spin on their captive breeding programs,
these efforts serve absolutely no benefit to the survival of the species, as
none of the offspring can ever be returned to the wild. Circus
"conservation" programs are simply a farce to produce cute baby animals to
attract customers and rake in cash.

      In past decades, circuses who wanted a new baby elephant for their
traveling shows simply ordered one captured from her own home. This meant
separating a nursing infant from her frantic mother and transporting the
baby half-way around the world to the United States, where the elephant
would immediately begin a long, lonely life of travel, deprived of her
family, her natural home and just about everything that makes life worth
living. Forty-four of 60 elephants now touring with Ringling Bros. and kept
at its Florida compounds were captured in the wild.

      But these kidnappings came to a virtual halt in the 1970s when Asian
elephants came under the protection of the Endangered Species Act. With
captive elephants dying prematurely, circuses began breeding programs to
ensure a constant source of elephants. To make this palatable to the public,
and to attract funds, they claimed to be doing their bit to save the Asian
elephant from extinction.

      But, as Jennie's death shows, elephants born into captivity often die
prematurely, too. Ringling brags that a handful of baby elephants were born
at the center in recent years without mentioning that 18 Ringling elephants
have died in the last decade, including two babies in the last four years.
Two others suffered painful injuries when they were tied with ropes and kept
in isolation.

      In a move that further exposes the weaknesses of the captive breeding
efforts, as well as the true motives of circus profiteers, the circus
industry supports weakening the Endangered Species Act so that they will be
able to capture and import even more endangered elephants to put on display.
This poses yet another threat to already dwindling populations in their
native lands.

      For the elephants born into captivity who do survive, including
Jennie's brother Obert, born at the Carson & Barnes Circus in August 2003,
the future isn't promising. An undercover investigator with People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals caught Tim Frisco, the manager of the
Endangered Ark Foundation and longtime elephant trainer for Carson & Barnes,
on tape attacking elephants with bullhooks and shocking them with an
electric prod. Frisco is heard on the tape instructing other elephant
trainers to hurt the elephants until they "scream" and run away. Says Frisco
on the tape, "Sink that hook into 'em ... when you hear that screaming then
you know you got their attention. ... Right here in the barn. You can't do
it on the road. ... I'm not gonna touch her in front of a thousand people."

      The money spent on breeding programs for elephants in circuses should
instead be used on efforts to reduce one of the main factors of impending
extinction-habitat loss. Circuses that truly care about elephants are
already eliminating these animals from their shows. Carson & Barnes,
Ringling Bros. and the host of other circuses who aren't as enlightened
should end their pretense of saving elephants and immediately follow suit.

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