The NY Times editorial board published an opinion piece called “Keep The Carriage Horses” arguing that carriages have been a “fixture for generations” and that the industry should be reformed, not banned.

Once again, the NY Times editorial board has come out in favor of keeping horse-drawn carriages in midtown, suggesting reforms that they know are impossible to implement, such giving the horses the opportunity “to eat and socialize with one another.” NYC doesn’t have a pasture for one horse, much less over 200 of them. But even if the NY Times’ proposed reforms could be implemented, that wouldn’t change the fact that forcing horses to pull carriages in the streets of midtown is inherently inhumane, unsafe and anachronistic. If the NY Times editorial board members saw BLINDERS, they would have to change their position because the documentation on the cruelty and safety issues is indisputable. But, like so many other industry supporters, they refuse to take off their blinders. These horses will be taken out of harm’s way eventually, and the NY Times and other industry supporters will be on the wrong side of history. In the meantime, please contact Mayor de Blasio and ask him to make good on his promise to take the horses off of the streets.

Ringling Bros. has gone to court requesting that three animal rights groups that unsuccessfully sued them should pay the $25 million in legal fees the company alleges to have spent defending themselves. According to the National Law Journal, “the fee request is one of the largest ever” in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C. Lawyers for the Fund for Animals, Animal Welfare Trust and Born Free USA “accused Feld’s legal team of inflating bills, failing to ‘exercise sound billing judgment,’ and overstaffing.”

Ringling Bros

Through the use of weapons, Ringling Bros. terrifies wild animals into submission; we cannot allow them to use lawsuits and other forms of intimidation to scare us too. If litigation against the circus isn’t successful, then we must continue to push for legislation that would ban the use of wild animals in circuses to and to protest them at every stop, educating customers about why using animals in circuses is inhumane On March 21st, One Green Planet published an article on 5 ways you can help end the use of animals in circuses.

Lionel Rowe, the chairman of the Shrine Circus who was caught on video (see below) choking a peaceful protester in Ottawa, Canada, has been charged with assault. The victim, Len Goldberg, is a member of the Ottawa Animal Defense League.

Several studies have drawn links between the abuse of animals and violence against people, as shown in the above video. It should therefore come as no surprise that a circus executive who uses weapons to beat wild animals into submission would attack a protester. Mr. Rowe, the man who attacked Mr. Goldberg, might have experienced temporary satisfaction choking an activist, but his criminal record will most likely be permanent. In addition to getting himself in trouble with the law, Mr. Rowe has probably attracted more activists to protest his barbaric circus. On March 21st, One Green Planet published an article on 5 ways you can help end the use of animals in circuses.

The Daily News reported that UniverSoul Circus is suing New York City for refusing to allow their elephants and tigers from performing. The Circus lawyers say that, “the city made new rules this year requiring the circus to get a permit to use exotic animals, then refused to grant the permit on the grounds that the tigers were kept in cages deemed too small and the elephants had not passed a tuberculosis test.”

Photo source: NY Daily News

Activists in NYC have been lobbying City Council members for years to support a bill banning the use of wild animals in circuses, but the bill never came out of committee for a vote. When he was a City Council Member, Mayor Bill de Blasio, who took office in January 2014, was a co-sponsor of that bill. Did he decide circumvent the cumbersome legislative route by having the Department of Health (DOH), which reports to him, refuse to grant animal permits to the circus? The Mayor’s office and the DOH aren’t speaking publicly about the lawsuit, so the public does not yet know the backstory. What we do know is that the local activist community will do whatever we can to help the City defend its position so that no circuses can use and abuse wild animals in NYC. Please contact the Mayor’s office to thank him for taking this historic step to outlaw the exceptionally cruel use of wild animals in circuses.

Three elephants temporarily escaped from a circus in St. Louis, damaging cars in the parking lot.

Circus elephants escape

While the eye-witnesses who spoke to reporters used the word “escape” to describe the incident, none conveyed an understanding that these elephants are prisoners in the first place, kidnapped from their mothers, chained for most of their lives and deprived of the ability to do anything that comes naturally to them. While the circus spokespeople say that these elephants “are now resting comfortably in their compound,” we know that their “trainers” will punish them by beating them with bullhooks, the weapons used to scare elephants into submission. The use of bullhooks was recently outlawed in Los Angeles. In the absence of bullhooks, elephants would trample their trainers. Ringling Brothers can therefore no longer travel to Los Angeles. On March 21st, One Green Planet published an article on 5 ways you can help end the use of animals in circuses.