Everyone loves the circus, right ? Not any more. Since the late 1990s protests against circuses and their use of wild animals for entertainment have gained momentum. Protesters talk about actual 
physical abuse of the animals and also protest the very concept of restraining and training wild animals for the sole purpose of entertaining us. Performing animals should have long since gone the way of the circus freak show! The animal most focused upon are the Asian elephants, the symbol of the cirucus.
Every fall the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus comes to Bridgeport at the Arena at Harbor Yard. The CT Post, Bridgeport’s hometown newspaper, came out with an editorial against the circus.
And every year protesters will be at the Arena. You can join them. See more details below.
If you were to strike your dog with a bullhook, or keep it chained by a front and back leg, you would be charged with animal abuse. Elephants in traveling shows endure lives of intense confinement, regular beatings with bullhooks, and the inability to satisfy physical and social needs.
Elephants are made to balance their weight on a tiny stool or two feet. Elephant hooks are used to control the animal by pulling behind the sensitive ear, pulling a leg forward or jabbing it under the tongue. Elephants are chained to the ground for up to 23 hours per day. Elephants which love wallowing in the mud and submerging in water are forced to stand in their own excrement in the circus, never able to enjoy these activities again.
Bridgeport Circus Headquarters 1919
Bridgeport Circus History
The circus has been a part of Bridgeport since P.T. Barnum first brought it to town in the 1880s. He is, of course, the “Barnum” part of of the modern Ringling Bros. Barnum & BaileyCircus.
Baby Brideport at Barnum Museum
Although a few elephants had been brought to America in the early 1880s, P.T. Barnum brought the famous Jumbo here in 1882, and Baby Bridgeport was born here that year and can still be seen stuffed and mounted on display in Bridgeport’s Barnum Museum. Barnum even had an elephant plow the field of his home in Bridgeport as a publicity stunt.
Plowing Barnum's Bridgeport Field 1855
The winter headquarters for the Barnum Circus was built in Bridgeport in the 1800’s near Wordin Avenue in the west end’s Went Field. Horses, tigers, and other domestic and exotic animals were housed there in large stables. Elephants were trained there as well. Performers and trainers resided in surrounding homes. Although there was a large fire there in1895, the Bridgeport site remained in use until 1927.
Elephant Abuse
Ringling Bros.Barnum & Bailey Circus, as well as other circuses worldwide, have been the focus of animal abuse allegations. According to many animal rights groups and eye-witness accounts, photos and shocking videos, circus elephants are beaten, hit, poked, prodded, and jabbed with sharp hooks, sometimes until bloody. Ringling breaks the spirit of elephants when they’re vulnerable babies. Heartbreaking photos reveal how Ringling Bros. circus trainers force baby elephants to learn tricks, and it’s not through a reward system, as claimed.Circus elephants are chained in train cars, perform unnatural and harmful acts in the ring, stand on the concrete floors of arena basements and are helpless to the violence of circus workers wielding sharp metal bull hooks. Ringling elephants are abused for our entertainment.
Elephants do not voluntarily stand on their heads, balance on balls, or sit on each other. They don’t perform these and other difficult tricks because they want to. They perform them because they’re afraid of what will happen if they don’t. There is no such thing as positive reinforcement only punishment and deprivation.
To force them to perform these meaningless tricks, trainers use whips, electric prods, bullhooks, and other painful tools of the trade.
The knowledge we possess today about elephants, their development and their social lives is more advanced than it was a century ago. And everything we know says that chaining these animals and forcing them to perform for our amusement is inhumane and cruel. For more details on elephant abuse in circuses go to these informative web sites:
Animal Defenders International In Defense of Animals
Ringling Beats Animals (PETA) Captive Animals’ Protection Society
Circus Protests
Cicrus protests have grown larger and more sophisticated in recent years. Local animal rights groups as well as national leaders like Friends of Animals and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) lead protests at most circus venues. They are filing important local and national lawsuits against the circuses and its practices.
Leading animal rights organizations have recently come out with under cover survailence videos displaying incontrovertible evidence on how elephants are broken and trained. The circus doesn’t deny the photographic evidence is authentic. They defend pictures of baby elephants with ropes around their limbs, prodded with sharp hooks and wrestled into unnatural positions as all part of the training process.
Humane activists around the globe are shifting in their opinions on the use of animals as entertainment, not only elephants and tigers in circuses, but whales and dolphins in water shows. Much of this is due to our increasing knowledge of animal behavior and changing standards when it comes to confining animals.
Changing Standards
A bill considered by the CT General Assembly last year would have prohibited the use and possession of a weapon commonly used by the Ringling Circus known as a “bullhook”, a rod with a sharp hook on the end used to jab, strike, and poke elephants in sensitive areas, as well as other weapons such as electric shocks. The bill also would have prohibited the prolonged chaining of elephants. Bridgeport’s own Rep. Auden Grogins supported the bill.
Circus protests have a history in Bridgeport too. In 2006 Circus protesters arrested outside the Arena at Harbor Yard after trying to get past police-placed barriers blocking the entrance. They were charged with criminal trespass, breach of the peace, interfering with police and inciting to riot, but a federal judge ruled city police had to allow them closer to the Arena. And circus protesters have been protesing there every since.
National measures to prohibit or limit the use of animals in circuses have also been adopted in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, Singapore, Bolivia, Costa Rica, India and Israel. Similar laws are being discussed in Brazil, Chile, Peru and Greece. More than a dozen municipalities in the United States, 200 in the UK and 26 municipalities in Canada have banned circuses containing wild animals. Isn’t it time for Bridgeport and Connecticut to wise up?
The Bronx Zoo, the only zoo left in NYC that keeps elephants, plans to shut down its elephant exhibit after the death of one or two of its three remaining elephants. Many zoo facilities nationwide have either closed their elephant exhibits or decided to phase them out. The NYC Council tried to ban the display of wild animals for public entertainment last year but did not succeed. Also last year the Connecticut Legislature tried to outlaw the “hook” that is used by the circus to violently train its elephants but also did not succeed.
What You Can Do
There are two ways to end the use of animals in the circus. Either governments can ban it, or we can stop supporting it with our dollars. When the audience stops going to the circus, then they’ll change. Children do not need to learn about elephants at circuses. They can be taken for nature walks and appreciate the wildlife in their natural habitats. They can watch wonderful wildlife and nature documentaries and learn to appreciate and respect nature.
Isn’t it time for Bridgeport and Connecticut to ban animals in the circus? Contact your legislators and tell them. Boycott the circus and explain why to your children and friends. Educate yourself. See the list of web sites above.
Attend a circus protest rally in Connecticut. I will post here when one is scheduled. Recently in June 2011 the Cole Brothers Circus was touring CT and there were many protests. The Ringling Brothers Circus comes to Bridgeport every October and protests will be posted here.
UPCOMING PROTEST RALLIES:
Join the protests at Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus at Bridgeport’s Webster Bank Arena, 600 Main Street, every day Thurs Oct 20 – Sun Oct 23, 2011. Rally to educate circus-goers about circus animal abuse. Animals used by Ringling are brutally trained to perform unnatural tricks, chained and confined to small cages. Dates:
Thursday October 20 at 6:00 pm for Opening Night
The Barnum Museum is having its benefit gala at the circus Oct. 20 thereby condoning this terrible animal abuse.
Friday October 21 at 6:15 pm
Saturday October 22 at 4:45 pm
Sunday October 23 at 2:45 pm
Contact Deb Robinson of In Defense of Elephants at cicuses@idausa.org 860-836-7761 for more information.
Attend animal-free circuses with trapeze artists, jugglers, clowns, tightrope walkers, and acrobats, but let’s leave animals in peace. Cirque du Soleil, the New Pickle Family Circus, Cirque Éloize, and others are exciting and innovative circuses that dazzle audiences without animal acts. Click here for a list of animal-free circuses.
Elephants and other animals have no place in the circus. They have got to go. As Bridgeport’s part of circus history in America, let’s change the old-time slogan “Bridgeport – where the circus never left town.”
If you have a question or comment or a nature topic you’d like to hear about, feel free to comment below. If you’d like to know when my next blog is posted, send me an email at madelinedennis@optonline.net. Check out my listing of CT nature and environmental web sites to the right on this page.
Also check out my Natural Nutmeg Facebook Page
where I post interesting events and news every day.
Where was PETA when UI wanted to gas the parakeets in CT a couple of years ago? No where. I called all branches of PETA including the national headquarters and they said they would look into it which they didn’t. State Rep. Tom Drew stepped in and help save those birds lives.
Madeline, did you photograph these photos yourself? Have you personally witnessed what is said here or are you taking PETA’s word. The only way they get involved is if there is money to be made, they extort money from companies and this is just another example.
Want a dose of reality? Google “PETA Kills” and get ready for a horrifying example of do as I say not as I do.
Pita, thank you for your comments. I know about PETA’s Virginia animal shelter issues. PETA has made no secret of its policy and has stated that euthanasia is sometimes necessary in a world full of unwanted pets. In regard to CT’s monk parakeets, even the CT Audubon Society called for serious management of these invasive birds. My blog, however, was not about PETA. Finally, one does not have to have first-hand knowledge of events to form an opinion. Everyone has the right to evaluate and interpret photos, videos and reports in their own way. I appreciate your earnestness and conviction.
[...] thanks to Madeline Dennis’s article about the rally to stop the abuse of elephants at opening night of the Ringling Brothers & [...]
Pita:
My husband happened to be backstage at Madison Square Garden a few years ago for an event when the circus was also there. While walking to the dressing room, he did witness this behavior first hand and said he can never get it out of his head.
A “trainer” repeatedly hit an elephant with a large metal stick, who was just standing there, with a large rod while yelling and swearing at it among other things calling it “a stupid piece of shit”. Is this the type of first hand account you were looking for?
Elephant abuse is real and pathetic. There is no need to have these animals in circuses.
I applaud Madeline for this article and raising awarness of this issue.
KTD
KTD,
Thanks for the post. And the first-hand account.
Madeline,
Beautiful summary of what animals endure in the circus. We attended the protest last night and saw that circus attendance was way down from other opening nights. Thanks for educating people about this injustice and hopefully soon, the animals will be released to sanctuaries.
Karen
Thanks for this blog post, Madeline. In these modern times, surely we can appreciate that it’s time for the circus to stop using outmoded and cruel animal acts to entertain the public. So your readers know, the protests continue throughout Ringling’s stay in Bridgeport – we will be out there, informing the public about the lives of the animals being used in the circus. Anyone is welcome to join in:
Tonight (Friday) at 6pm
Saturday at 4:15pm
and Sunday at 2:45pm. Saturday and Sunday protests are between shows, so that we can provide information to people coming out of one and into the next. Thanks again!
Deb, Thank you so much for your comments. I am glad to hear that the protests will continue throughtout the circus’s run in Bridgeport. I did not know that. That is wonderful ! I will definately promote them on my Bridgeport web site and FB page too.
seriously?? give it a rest, go after the guy in shelton who is sexually abusing horses. we get your point, but its not going to change.
Jersey, Read the section called “Changing Standards.” Animal circuses have already been outlawed in 18 countries around the world and hundreds of cities in Canada, the United States and England. It IS changing !
Madeline, thank you for your post educating the public that the price of Circus admission includes animal cruelty.
This past Sunday my mother and I stood outside the entrance to a Ringling Bros. Barnum Bailey Circus in my hometown of Rochester, NY holding signs in protest of their poor treatment of animals- specifically elephants. Our signs were not graphic. Mine was a R.I.P. with the names and dates of deaths of baby elephants that died during “training”.
I was called an ‘extremist’ [really? for holding a sign?], was told I should ‘help the homeless instead of wasting my time on elephants’, and even a few people said ‘oh come on… the circus doesn’t hurt their elephants!’ We were shouted and sneered at by many people as we silently held our signs. Most people passed by without a word.
What I learned on Sunday is that some people would rather believe that this cruelty is not happening than give up their beloved circus. I guess it’s easier to deny it than to take action. My hope is that some of the people who silently read our signs will listen to their conscience, do a little research, and never attend a Circus with animal acts again.
And, by the way, I help the homeless too.
Deanna, Thank you SO much for your post. I think people’s minds are changing slowly. Many countries and cities around the world are banning animals in circuses. You and your mom were brave. I hope their were some other protesters there too. My town bridgeport had protesters at the circus from PETA, In Defense of Animals and Friends for Animals too. Madeline
I attended my first protest last night outside of Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois and I was so disappointed to see peoples reactions to our silent protest. I had people yelling at me, ripping up literature (that they didn’t have to take) and then disrecpectfully littering it in the nearby business parking lots and of course multiple people driving by giving us “the finger.” But none of it mattered to me I plan on being out there every day that the circus is in town…all the way till the end of November. So please help spread the word to our upcoming protests on the corner of Mannheim and Lunt Rd. in Rosemont, Illinois. We will be there handing out signs and posters about 1 hour before the start of every show. Hope to see lots of new faces!
Thanks for the informative article. It’s articles like this that have helped to inform me.
I’m 36 and just attended my first circus(Ringling Bros in MI, 11-10) with my husband and two young sons. We sat close in the second row. I had to walk out because my instinct told me these animals were abused. Seeing the elephants was like watching a group of slaves perform. The tigers and other animals displayed what I considered fearful posture and reaction to the trainers. If these animals were taught to perform with rewards, then why would they look so terrified of their own trainers, the people they spend most time with? Thank you for your article. I am trying to do what I can to educate people and write letters to help stop this abuse.
Carrie, Your post was very sad but important. Thank you. As you probably know there are great circuses that do not use animals. I don’t know which ones travel out in MI but we have the Big Apple circus here in the Northeast that is lots of fun. I think they do use dogs and horses but that is a little bit different. Maybe a circus like that will come your way that you can take your sons to. Madeline
madeline,
with all respect to your article, you must know that it’s not (in most cases) the circus that abuse the animals, but rather the trainers. Some circuses do own their own animals but for the most part, they hire people who own the animals outside of the company. not all trainers abuse their animals as well, which can be seen in many photos that you neglect to search for and put in your blog. Elephants especially love to be challenged and taught new things, just like dogs can learn tricks and enjoy it, elephants love the mental stimulation (and treats=) I myself traveled with a circus and met a family who kept the elephants very well, giving them exercise, bathing and playing with them. don’t judge the circus and make them suffer instead find the owners and trainers that abuse their animals, just many people do in households across america everyday, and quit blaming the circus as a whole and giving it a bad name. one person does not represent the majority. also i would much rather an elephant be with a loving circus family than have them be poached and killed in the wild.
Thank you for posting, Marie. It really does not matter what the relationship between circus management and the elephant owners and trainers is. The management IS responsible for what happens. I am sure there are elephant trainers who “love” their animals and do not physically abuse them, but it really is the concept of confining these very large wild animals that is the real abuse…i.e. chaining them up all day in concrete rooms, moving them in cramped trains, not allowing family groups to remain intact, not allowing them to run in large expanses, etc. etc. Elephants are not like dogs neither biologically, physiologically or psychologically. I think circuses are great, just not the ones that cage wild animals. Twenty counties and hundreds of cities have banned circuses that use animals for our entertainment, and more places will follow. And your last comment is like saying let’s chain the kids up in the basement so they won’t get hit by a car out in the neighborhood.
Hi. I have witnessed cruelty to elephants and other wild animals on telly. Recently i watched a programe about a circus elephant called Ann on BBC1 who has been performing in a circus for over 50 years. She was proper beaten by her trainer. It broke my heart. How anyone could beat any animal is behond me. I recently attended Blackpool circus, no animals performed, just humans, it was fantastic, the place was packed with crouds of people wanting to see humans perform various stunts and everyone loved. YOU DONT NEED TO SEE PERFORMING WILD BEASTS TO BE ENTERTAINED!!
Excellent protest. Bridgeport needs to boycott this cruel sadistic show of irrational behavior. Use the money to enjoy a great meal in one of Bridgeport’s spectacular restaurants. The mayor should ban the circus in Bridgeport.
The circus is “history” that Bridgeport should leave behind. These people who train animals and work for the circus shame the very name of man, himself. When the earth as we know it ends, and they are called to reckon, there is a “special place” where they will be sent to.
Now that Webster Bank has taken the name of the Arena, why not move your accounts elsewhere, and tell them why?
Can you tell us who in the Connecticut Legislative council did not vote to abolish the elephant hook? Let’s rally to get them ousted! Inform the public.
How would the owners like it if we were treated them this way ?
They can’t speak for them self.
They don’t know sign language.
They are helpless they are all alone,poor,terrified,and scared they were born to be wild not an enterteinment.