Stop Circus Suffering

The new season is here, and the U.S. traveling circuses are on the move, leaving their winter quarters for the grueling tours across the country with their animals cramped into tiny trucks, boxcars, trailers and cages, chained, deprived of everything that gives them pleasure and contentment.

This is the season to start getting those local animal circuses everywhere!  Let’s get those demos going and make the public aware of the suffering behind the scenes.

ADI has sent undercover investigators in over thirty circuses in the U.S. and around the world, and the story is the same everywhere – brutality, beatings, environmental deprivation, poor and restricted food, herd animals kept alone and naturally solitary animals kept in close proximity to other animals.  Prey animals kept in sight of predators.

Our message to the public is: don’t be fooled by the glitz and glamour of the show – life for travelling circus animals is one of deprivation and confinement, punctuated by beatings with iron bars, broom handles, pitchforks, bull hooks and electric shock devices, including stun guns.  Don’t buy into the cruelty.

Let’s make it clear to people that America’s highways and parking lots are not suitable habitats for animals and entertainment should never be cruel.

In the U.S., we now have 38 local animal circus bans or restrictions (a handful of these ban just the use of certain painful devices or substances on the animals).  This year, we need to get more! So we need to do demos outside circuses to explain to the public that the circus is no fun for the animals; get local publicity to show that the animal circus is not welcome in the community; we need to start talking to community leaders and local legislators about a prohibition on animal circuses entering the area.

See our list of local bans in the U.S. here.

We always recommend looking at all the options – try for a ban on all animals in travelling shows, or for all wild or exotic animals such as lions, tigers, elephants, zebra and others.  Many legislators look at the evidence and decide that the domestic species like horses and dogs are indeed suffering as much as the wild animals – for example the use of all animals is banned in three of the twenty countries with national bans.  Contact us to talk about lobbying for a local ban.

ADI has leaflets, posters and everything that is needed to help with publicity and then lobby local legislators about bringing in a travelling animal circus ban.

We can send out press releases with quotes from you, and help raise the level of the publicity for your campaign. Although we track the circus tours, they can change – so let us know as soon as you hear that an animal circus is coming, and we will work on getting you some media coverage.

By year’s end these circuses will log thousands of miles traveling across America coast to coast with camels, lions, tigers, elephants, ponies, zebras and other animals cramped inside trailers and train cars. Whether in Orlando, Florida, Fargo, North Dakota, or Anaheim, California, for the animals each stop is the same; a few more days living chained or closely confined in another stark concrete parking lot.

Let’s work smarter with ADI in 2013 to end circus suffering – cut out their territories. Whether you hand out leaftlets at a protest, lobby your city or county for a ban, meet with your Congressmember in their district office to support federal legislation, or write a check to support our efforts, please plan now to do something for circus animals this year.

What you can do:

• Contact ADI’s Los Angeles office today and our campaigns team can provide you with leaflets, posters: usa@ad-international.org, or call 323-935-2234.
• We have circus schedules! Find out when the circus is coming to your town by contacting us at usa@ad-international.org, or call 323-935-2234.
• Get travelling animal circuses banned from your community. Counties, cities and towns across the country have already passed travelling animal circus bans because someone like you took action, contact our campaigns team at: usa@ad-international.org, or call 323-935-2234.
• Join ADI’s efforts to pass federal legislation aiming to ban wild animals from traveling circuses in the United States. Find out about seeing your Member of Congress in their District Office. Join our email list and stay informed.
• Donate today to help ADI break the chain of circus suffering!  

And don’t forget to send us your photos of your protests and other activities and share your experiences with other BTC members!