PETA Global 2017 Issue 1

Torn Paper: © iStock.com/yasinguneysu | Lion: © iStock.com/animalnige | Camel: © Koustubh Pol

M ore than 94% of those polled in Britain support a pending ban on wild animals in circuses. Sir Roger Moore has publicly called on Prime Minister Theresa May to implement it, saying, “Wild animals in real life must feel as if they’ve been captured by the fictional Dr No. When they’re not being forced to perform confusing tricks under threat of the whip, they’re chained up or tied down. They’re denied everything that gives their lives meaning.” Dropping One by One Ringling isn’t the only animal circus to call it quits. The Cole Bros. Circus stopped touring last year, and the Big Apple Circus filed for bankruptcy. The 2017 Ramos Bros. Circus tour , which is drawing massive crowds, eliminated all animal acts except for dogs. In 2010, the owners of Circus Vargas dropped animal acts, saying, “We felt the time was coming for a change.” Indeed, there are only a few circuses left in the US still clinging to an obsolete business model. UniverSoul removed false assurances about humaneness to animals from its website after settled a consumer lawsuit in which the plaintiffs were represented by PETA Foundation general counsel Jeff Kerr. Then there’s the notoriously awful Carson & Barnes Circus , which paid nearly $20,000 in fines in the past few years, and the Kelly Miller Circus , which has been hauling a lonely elephant named Anna Louise across the US. Even though elephants need the company and companionship of others of their species in order to thrive, Anna Louise has been all alone for three decades. She was captured from her natural habitat in Zimbabwe and forced into a cruel life of chains and bullhooks.

94% Of those polled in Britain support a pending ban on wild animals in circuses.

Some Shriners are starting to get the picture, too. One Canadian Shriners’ club, for example, abandoned its longtime circus and is planning an Oktoberfest fundraiser instead. Shriners in Rochester, New York, stopped holding their circus because they were losing money. Relief in Sight And it's not just circuses whose public support is waning. After months of discussion and productive meetings with PETA US, TripAdvisor – the world’s largest travel site – announced that it will no longer sell tickets to animal “attractions,” including elephant rides, tiger encounters, and “swim with dolphins” excursions, which put wild and endangered animals as well as human participants at risk. TripAdvisor is also working with PETA US and other partners to launch a new education portal that will help inform travelers about animal-welfare issues. Since hundreds of millions of travelers look to TripAdvisor for advice and recommendations, this is good news for dolphins in cramped tanks, elephants living in chains, and tiger cubs exploited for use in photo ops. BE THE CHANGE!

dolphins currently in its possession to a coastal sanctuary. SeaWorld has stopped breeding future generations of orcas, who would have to spend their lives in cramped tanks. Nearly a half-dozen roadside zoos – where animals suffered for years in filthy, ramshackle cages – closed their doors in 2016. And progress for animals hasn’t been limited to the US. In Argentina, a judge found that Cecilia, a chimpanzee languishing in a Mendoza zoo, isn’t a “thing” but rather a sentient being “subject to nonhuman rights,” and she ordered the zoo to send Cecilia to a sanctuary. That country also passed a ban on greyhound racing, sparing countless dogs a short, grim life spent mostly in a cage, between races. And the annual Toro de la Vega “festival ” – in which young bulls are stabbed with darts and spears while being chased through the streets of Tordesillas, Spain – was banned. PETA and its affiliates will continue to target those few cruel circuses that still use and abuse animals. One thing is certain: Their days are numbered.

F I N D O U T W H A Y B A C K P G E • B E T H E C H A N G E ! • C N D O - T U R

Support our work to help elephants, bears, and other unwilling performers at PETA.org/Entertainment.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore also made a precedent-setting decision: It’s sending the eight

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