Monday, June 16, 2008

Carson & Barnes

Animal rights group targets circus
Cites treatment of elephants
By Matthew Spina NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 06/05/08 6:38 AM

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With a circus arriving in Hamburg next week, People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals is seeking an Erie County law banning the use of bullhooks, electric prods and other devices used to control elephants.

The Legislature would be unable to approve such a law in time for the circus visit Wednesday and next Thursday at the Hamburg Fairgrounds. But PETA will still call attention to what it sees as cruel treatment of elephants by the Carson & Barnes Circus.

Carson & Barnes is touring upstate New York and about 200 locations this year. PETA is dogging the circus along its route to alert legislators and other government officials and to call attention to a hidden-camera videotape.

The video, shot at least 10 years ago, shows Carson & Barnes trainer Tim Frisco controlling elephants inside a barn with a bullhook and a prod and telling other handlers to hurt the elephants until they scream or to sink a bullhook into their skin as needed.

PETA made a similar appeal in Western New York in 2006, when Carson & Barnes was planning performances in Jamestown, Lockport, Batavia and Angelica. PETA that year sent letters to the Niagara County and Genesee County legislatures and to officials in Jamestown and Angelica, urging them to ban bullhooks, electric prods and other devices “commonly used to inflict pain on elephants.”

“The use of bullhooks results in pain, suffering and trauma, including lacerations, puncture wounds and abscesses,” PETA’s Lisa Wathne, a “captive exotic animal specialist,” says in a letter to the Erie County Legislature. “Although elephants’ skin appears tough, it is so sensitive that elephants can feel the pain of an insect bite.”

Frisco was suspended pending an investigation by an outside attorney hired by the circus and by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, which enforces the federal Animal Welfare Act.

“You have a guy screaming absolutely awful language at other trainers,” said Ben Trumble, an animal behaviorist hired by the circus. “What you are viewing on the video doesn’t amount to too much, which is why, when the USDA viewed the video, there were no major repercussions.”

On the video, the elephants are making noises. PETA says they are screaming; Trumble says they are “vocalizing.” But Trumble says you don’t see the elephants making noises because of anything Frisco does.

Frisco still works as a trainer for Carson & Barnes, and the circus still uses bullhooks, a standard tool used by elephant handlers for 4,000 years to control their direction, not to inflict pain, Trumble said. It’s about 2 feet long with a hook on one end to tug on an elephant’s leg and guide it.

Trumble says PETA has been using the videotape for years.

“They contact each community several weeks in front of the show,” Trumble said, “and they propose restrictions. It’s a media play because they know that two weeks out or 10 days out there is no time for any legislative body to give any serious consideration to an ordinance or restriction or to hear evidence for both sides. But they do get a news story out of it.”

Another spokesman for the circus, Harry Dubsky, said that when Carson & Barnes arrives in Hamburg with three elephants next week it will also bring its standard canopy, to provide the animals relief from the sun, and a misting system to keep them cool.

mspina@buffnews.com

1 comment:

OrMaggie77 said...

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