Good and Bad News in September from ADI
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

ADI Animal Defenders International
September 2017

Please urge your congressmember to co-sponsor the Traveling Exotic Animal and Public Safety Protection Act (HR 1759) which, if passed, would prohibit the use of wild and exotic animals in traveling circuses. TEAPSPA recently added 3 more co-sponsors, encourage your Congressmember to sign on! Ask your senators to support a senate bill. Take action here - Congress must act to stop circus suffering.

circus tiger

The past two weeks have highlighted the progress we are making for animals, but also the huge challenges we still face.

It was exciting to see ADI’s work recognized by the Albert Einstein Foundation as part of the Genius 100: Innovation Summit in Montreal, Canada. I spoke alongside entrepreneurs, tech innovators, doctors, Nobel laureates, astronauts, spiritual leaders and social reformers on my vision for animals and the environment and what needs to be done to heal the destructive behavior of humans towards the other species living on our planet; including ending the damage to the earth. Appropriately, the events closed with a human-only circus show. We also picked up news coverage highlighting our work http://bit.ly/2fnwkeC

We are making progress towards the world in the vision I outlined in Montreal.

Last week, Santa Fe, New Mexico banned wild animals in circuses. New Jersey saw yet another ban, when Clifton joined Jersey City, Vineland and the counties of Hudson, Cumberland, Passaic and Bergen with bans – the state could soon be a "no go" area for animal circuses!

In California, Trione Vineyards and Winery responded to our undercover evidence of systematic elephant abuse by canceling next month’s appearance by Have Trunk Will Travel. Lebanon passed national legislation making animal abuse a crime and banning certain species, including elephants, tigers, and chimpanzees from circuses.

But one sad saga involving the big cats of circus trainer Alexander Lacey shows there is no room for complacency, we must increase our work!

Alexander Lacey is no stranger to ADI; we filmed and exposed his animal abuse 20 years ago. Our undercover investigators filmed him and one of his workers jabbing and hitting his tigers. When a lioness, Narla, was attacked and seriously injured by a male tiger, Lacey hid her from a visiting animal welfare inspector. His father Martin Lacey was the same, hiding the elephant chains and hasps from inspectors visiting the Great British Circus, even as he claimed that he did not chain the elephants. ADI cameras caught both lies.

lioness Narla

Alexander Lacey took his performing animals to the US to appear with Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, America’s largest animal circus – however Ringling Bros. promptly closed this summer!

This month during a travel break one of Lacey’s tigers, Suzy, escaped without anyone noticing. She was shot dead by police in the street in Georgia. The animals’ transporter, Ringling’s parent company Feld Entertainment, said that they didn’t even know Suzy was missing until they reached their destination!

And just days before the animals left Memphis, the big cat trainer was in trouble again, failing to notify the Arkansas wildlife authorities that his animals would be housed in the state temporarily, their location only discovered following a tip-off.

A battle has been raging to make sure Lacey’s seven tigers, six lions and a leopard were retired in the US rather than be re-exported to Europe to appear with a circus in Germany. Last month, USFWS authorized the export.

Alexander Lacey tigers
Alexander Lacey appeared at the last show by Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus

Alexander Lacey will be appearing with Zirkus Charles Knie and Heilbronner Weihnachts in Germany, but don’t be surprised if he turns up in the UK again, thanks to the government failure to deliver the ban. He may even return to the US.

The story highlights the problem with animal circuses, the impoverished conditions these animals endure on the road; ineffectual government oversight; safety issues linked to lightweight, collapsible animal accommodation, and that these businesses move constantly.

Please urge your congressmember to co-sponsor the Traveling Exotic Animal and Public Safety Protection Act (HR 1759) which, if passed, would prohibit the use of wild and exotic animals in traveling circuses. TEAPSPA recently added 3 more co-sponsors, encourage your Congressmember to sign on! Ask your senators to support a senate bill. Take action here - Congress must act to stop circus suffering.


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