It was a few years ago since the last time we saw the Barnum and Bailey Circus here in Sacramento. We can’t wait to see them again soon. Here are some blurred photos I took during the show.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is an American circus company. The company was started when the circus created by James Anthony Bailey and P. T. Barnum was merged with the Ringling Brothers Circus. The Ringling brothers purchased the Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1907, but ran the circuses separately until they were finally merged in 1919.
It is probably a good thing that the pictures are blurry so that you cannot see the injuries on the elephants. Please do not go to the circus. In 2009, PETA recorded Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus employees for many months and in numerous
U.S. states. Eight employees, including the head elephant trainer and the animal superintendent, were videotaped
backstage repeatedly hitting elephants in the head, trunk, ears, and other sensitive body parts with bullhooks and other
cruel training devices just before the animals would enter the arena for performances. (A bullhook is an elephanttraining
tool that resembles a fireplace poker.) A tiger trainer was videotaped beating tigers during dress rehearsals.
Footage from the investigation can be viewed at RinglingBeatsElephants.com.
Former Ringling employees have reported that elephants are routinely abused and violently beaten with bullhooks. In
December 2009, PETA released dozens of photographs taken by a retired Ringling trainer named Sam Haddock. The
photos reveal the violent training methods used on baby elephants at Ringling’s Polk City, Florida, training center. The
photos, which are available at RinglingBeatsAnimals.com, depict baby elephants bound with ropes and wrestled into
physically difficult and uncomfortable positions by several adult men. According to Haddock’s notarized statement, the
elephants scream, cry, and struggle as they are stretched out, slammed to the ground, gouged with bullhooks, and
shocked with electric prods. According to him, these violent training methods are the only way an elephant can be
trained to perform in circuses.