{"id":848616,"date":"2017-05-04T19:15:43","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T23:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peta.org\/?post_type=feature&p=848616"},"modified":"2024-04-02T05:38:25","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T12:38:25","slug":"ringling","status":"publish","type":"feature","link":"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/features\/ringling\/","title":{"rendered":"We Never Gave Up: PETA’s Triumph Over Ringling Bros."},"content":{"rendered":"

Thirty-six years of PETA protests against 146-year-old Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus\u2014in which members and supporters revealed that animals were beaten and otherwise abused\u2014have reduced attendance to the point of no return.<\/p>\n

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Since our very beginning, PETA has been Ringling’s most vocal opponent and nemesis.<\/h2>\n

Ringling’s decision to shut down comes after PETA worked relentlessly for decades to ensure that every single person thinking of attending one of the outfit’s performances knew exactly the kind of cruelty that his or her ticket purchase would be supporting.<\/p>\n

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In recent years, you would have been hard-pressed to find a single Ringling performance at which PETA supporters weren’t outside encouraging folks to ditch the cruelest show on Earth. Thousands of persistent and dedicated people participated in protests against the circus. Some dressed up in costumes, others handed out leaflets to parents and gave stickers and coloring books to kids, and many held up signs with messages such as “Ringling Beats Animals.”<\/p>\n

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Given how often we declared our presence, some might say that protesting a Ringling show became a rite of passage in standing up to animal abuse.<\/h2>\n
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While it may once have taken something as dramatic as dumping two tons of manure in front of Ringling headquarters or sitting in a cage, painted like a tiger, to persuade media outlets to report on circus cruelty rather than running a puff piece about the company’s latest ticket-selling gimmick, reports of demonstrations against the circus and its latest federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations soon became the norm.<\/p>\n

We filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) following the deaths of Kenny\u2014a baby elephant Ringling forced to perform while desperately ill\u2014and a 4-year-old elephant named Benjamin, who drowned while swimming in a pond after a trainer began tormenting him with a bullhook. We also did so after a lion named Clyde baked to death in a boxcar and a baby elephant named Riccardo broke his legs while being trained.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tJoin the Movement<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBigotry begins when categories such as race, age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or species are used to justify discrimination.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoin the Movement<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

It took years of pressure to get the agency’s Office of the General Counsel to take action on the serious abuse that we’d uncovered, and when it finally did, the USDA slapped Ringling with the largest fine ever imposed<\/a> on an animal exhibitor: more than a quarter of a million dollars.<\/p>\n

With the help of a whistleblower<\/a> <\/strong>who, dying of cancer and acting on his wife’s wishes, sent us photographs showing how Ringling breaks the spirits of baby elephants by tying them down and beating them, we revealed the circus’s cruelty to millions.<\/p>\n\n

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