Home Page
Action Alerts
Articles
Campaigns
Events
How Can I Help?
Letters
Press Releases
Who We Are
Links

We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.

Animal Defenders of Westchester
P.O. Box 205
Yonkers, NY 10704

Press Release

NEW RINGLING BROS SHAME EXPOSED!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Kiley Blackman  
[email protected]
www.adow.org   

March 16, 2005 Animal Defenders of Westchester joins with other animal protection organizations in denouncing the new Ringling Bros. Barnum Baily circus ad campaign, �Babies, babies and more babies!� as being blatantly deceitful and false advertising.

Knowing that activists all over the world are demanding circuses give up cruel, dangerous elephant acts, this campaign states that Ringling is �saving� elephants from extinction in the wild by keeping them in captivity.  They also capitalize on the fact that everyone likes babies, to use frolicking, happy photos of Ringling baby elephants, along with their birthdates; but three of the babies  they tout as "victory" died as babies in Ringling custody while being forced to perform! Most recently and tragically,  baby Riccardo died after breaking  both his legs while tied to a circus pedestal and falling off as he was being forced to "learn a circus trick"; this animal�s mother was used for breeding by Ringling at age 7, instead of age 18 as recommended by wildlife authorities.  

And Ringling has the audacity to include his photo and birth date, as though he is alive and well!

The elephants are NOT bred for true conservation but to stream a steady supply of elephants to Ringlings to be used in their circus to make money on them.  Kiley Blackman of ADOW said, "If Ringling really wanted to help elephants, they would donate some of their millions to the preservation of their natural habitat; instead they spread these lies to continue exploiting them for profit.  

They denied DATELINE access into their training headquarters- common decency demands that they open the training door!"