Home Page
Action Alerts
Articles
Campaigns
Events
How Can I Help?
Letters
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

Campaigns
Stop Traveling Animal Acts

Letter Asks for Circus Advice

We received this letter asking for suggestions about an in-coming circus; our response is below:

Please give me some suggestions on how to deal with the circus coming to town. I live in Kansas City and am not aware of any animal activist groups here. If one would just show up at the circus, would it be very likely that other protestors will already be there and I could just join them? Any suggestions would be very helpful.

Sincerely,

Jennifer

Dear Jennifer,

Thank you for contacting ANIMAL DEFENDERS OF WESTCHESTER. There is a lot you can do about the circus coming to your town.

- In terms of finding out if there are other activists in your area, you might contact Best Friends Sanctuary www.bestfriends.org or People for the Ethical treatment of Animals www.peta.org , both of which maintain an activist network listing from all around the country.

- If you have one or two sympathetic friends, you've got a demo! As far as going to the circus and possibly finding other activists, absolutely do try - many times, for several reasons, area activists don't know about each other's presence, but 'discover' each other at demos; and if there are activists there already, I am certain they will welcome your attendance and your wanting to help.

- If you go to the circus and there are no activists, you might consider passing out leaflets to the incoming public on your own. It may feel awkward at first (or maybe not - you sound adventurous!) - but remember, the animals can't speak for themselves...if you hand out leaflets that tell their story, you'll be doing a world of good - and you might be surprised to find some circus goers happy to see someone there speaking out; there are people all over who almost 'get it,' but need further impetus, need to know they don't 'have' to go to the circus, that there are alternatives. Peta supplies free demo handout literature for circuses and other animal protection topics.

- If you're really adventurous, Jennifer, you can send out a press release before the event - use one of the ones on our website as a model. Write letters to the editor to your local newspaper, you might be very pleasantly surprised to get newspaper space for your views on this and other animal protection topics (also check our website for examples of letters to the editor, if you need guidance on this).

- And if you see signs, free passes, etc, in your local stores that promote the circus, ask the management to remove 'em; we've had a lot of success with this, especially if you're a regular customer (even if you're not, take a chance, ask politely that they be removed, give 'em literature.

I hope these suggestions prove helpful, Jennifer. Please feel free to contact us at any time. Best luck to you, and thank you so much for wanting to speak for those who have no voice and no choice.

ANIMAL DEFENDERS OF WESTCHESTER

---

Fair Use Notice: This document may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.