The time is right for animal activists everywhere to
circulate petitions in their city, state, or country requesting that
circuses with animal acts be banned. (Sample Petition follows below.)
Helpful Hints include:
* Make sure only eligible voters sign (over 18-year-old
residents),
* Remind people to write legibly,
* Have fliers on the issues on hand (ask your favorite animal rights
organization for help),
* Stand outside supermarkets, pet shops, subway stations, etc., to reach
the most people. Don't forget to put petitions on any information tables
you set up, and
* Encourage group members to collect signatures on their own and RETURN
THEM TO YOU.
SAMPLE PETITION:
Whereas animals used in the circus, and other traveling
acts, travel thousands of miles each year without water, in railroad
cars or trucks neither air-conditioned in summer nor heated in winter;
Whereas animals used in the circus and other traveling
acts are forced to stand in their own waste, chained in place for up to
100 hours while being transported from one performance to another, and
do not receive the proper care, nutrition, and environmental enrichment
required for their well-being;
Whereas animals used in the circus and other traveling
acts are highly intelligent, evolved and emotional individual beings
and, as such, suffer terribly while being used for human
"entertainment"; their basic need for live vegetation or prey, family
relationships, and freedom of movement being denied;
Whereas training for animals used in the circus and
other traveling acts is almost always based on fear and intimidation (It
is not uncommon for elephants to be tied down and beaten for days at a
time with clubs, shocked with electric prods, stabbed with sharp hooks
and whipped. Exotic cats and bears are whipped, choked, and beaten;
their noses broken and paws burned with cigarette lighters to get them
to balance on their hind legs, jump through fiery hoops and perform
other unnatural acts);
Whereas animals used in the circus and other traveling
acts have struck back out of understandable despair, frustration, and
rage, causing over 100 human deaths and mutilations since 1990;
WE, THEREFORE, THE UNDERSIGNED RESIDENTS OF (fill in the
name of your community), DO NOT FIND CIRCUSES AND TRAVELING ACTS USING
ANIMALS WHOLESOME ENTERTAINMENT AND URGE OUR (commissioners, city
council, or other) TO, IN THE INTEREST OF PUBLIC SAFETY, MORE EFFICIENT
USE OF TAXPAYERS' MONEY, AND THE HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS, PASS AN
ANIMAL DISPLAY BAN.
PRINT: NAME
SIGNATURE
ADDRESS(include zip)
PHONE(optional)
For further information, including how to strategize,
make a FOIA request, approach your Mayor, develop a public library/city
hall display, etc.,
contact Shannon Slavin at [email protected]
Go on to The Circus
Hall of Shame
Return to 5 December 1999 Issue
Return to Newsletters
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