Activists: No Circus Joy for Elephants

Feb. 3, 2009 -- They are the five-ton stuff of childhood delight: Asian elephants that prance and turn and hoist their way beneath the fabled big top. Yet, it is what animal rights activists say happens behind the scenes, far from the squealing cheers of fans, that may chase pachyderms from the circus forever.

Legs chained so tightly the elephants cannot take a step. Hides "bull-hooked" with prongs so sharp the animals sometimes bleed. Young elephants wrenched from their nursing mothers with ropes and chains. All this alleged abuse, say the activists, violates the Endangered Species Act, and to stop it, they have sued Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in a federal case that goes to trial Wednesday in Washington, DC.

"I have seen (the elephants) crying in pain and just screaming out," says Tom Rider, who used to work in the elephant barn at Ringling Brothers and joined the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and other groups in filing the suit.

Circus officials, meanwhile, contend that leg chains and bull hooks -- which they call "tethers" and "guides" — are standard tools in the industry and far from inhumane when used properly by trained Ringling Brothers employees.

"Our elephants are healthy and well cared for and, in fact, are thriving at the circus," says Michelle Pardo, a lawyer for Ringling Brothers.

Pardo also disputes the legal basis for the case. The animal rights groups make the novel argument that the circus has violated the Endangered Species Act by "harassing," "harming" and "wounding" the endangered Asian elephants. But Pardo says the act doesn't apply to captive animals, which are, instead, protected by the Animal Welfare Act.

"This is really nothing more," she says, "than a philosophical debate about whether elephants belong in the circus at all."