L.A. City Hall's 'Elephant Awareness Day' Apparently Not Enough to Keep Ringling Bros. Out of Staples Center

Thanks Simone for bringing attention to this issue again because you are right, there will be black-and-blue Ringling elephants who'll perform for mislead gleeful kiddies at Staples Center tonight, all who have been told the animals love to perform. 

If the kids were allowed to see the pre-show or after party, they would see the red and screams PETA talks of (red is blood and screams are not crowds or kids but ailing cries of elephants receiving their bull hook dominance reminders).

I’d like to respond to the following comments:  “Not one month after L.A. politicians wasted time and resources designating August 3 as the city's official "Elephant Awareness Day," the poster corporation for alleged elephant abuse is coming to town.”, “The legislation (if you can even call it that) was passed to appease local activists”, Elephant Awareness Day did about as much for animal rights as the council's Responsible Banking Ordinance did for the 99 percent:  I think we can begin with the elimination of the phrase of ‘alleged elephant abuse’ since we have all heard the testimony from the Supreme Court, statements from ex Ringling Bros trainers (and videos of the same), and hundreds of hours of expert testimony of ‘facts’ and the final conclusion of the respected Supreme Court Judge Jon Segal that have been stated:

* Los Angeles zoo officials who believe they are treating their elephants well are delusional, according to federal judge John L. Segal.  

*Findings by Judge Segal were that plaintiff has met his burden of proof that the Elephants of Asia exhibit of the Los Angeles Zoo is injuring the three elephants that live there.

*The evidence at trial shows that life at the Los Angeles Zoo for Billy, Tina, and Jewell is empty, purposeless, boring, and occasionally painful.

*Their lives are supervised, managed, and controlled by zoo employees who appear to be in the dark about normal and abnormal behavior of elephants, in denial about the physical and emotional difficulties of the elephants they manage and whose lives they control, and under the misconception that the elephants prefer to live their lives in an exhibit with human companions rather than with other elephants.

*The elephants are hardly, as defendants contend, "thriving. "

To the reference : “Not one month after L.A. politicians wasted time and resources designating August 3 as the city's official "Elephant Awareness Day”,  the poster corporation for alleged elephant abuse is coming to town.”, and “The legislation (if you can even call it that) was passed to appease local activists”, Elephant Awareness Day did about as much for animal rights as the council's Responsible Banking Ordinance did for the 99 percent,

this reader finds the lack of education on certain issues is filled with misinformation at every level of politics and boils down to money talks and money corrupts. 

Bad guys in LA can literally get away with ‘murder’, circuses with $200mm in revenue have a greater chance of being heard than a PhD that has studied this very issue for 35 years (Joyce Poole, PhD on elephant behavior).  Hence why you mention the almost ineffective voice of the 99 percent to effect change, 99% of the populations don’t have $200mm budgets! 

What is important here is to reward those, like Councilman Cardenas and LA City Council, David Casselman Esq., and Superior Court Judge John Segal who stand up and back unpopular decisions and issues, like the abuse of animals in LA, in the face of ‘secretive billionaire and City Council pet Philip Anschutz’ and Ringling Bros with their huge lobbing resources. 

If we don’t support ethical, non conflicted efforts on behalf of our elected officials, for whom we desire as much, efforts to thwart off unethical profit driven business models like Ringling  is all that can be expected. 

I think these huge lobbing resources are responsible for what Judge Segal refers to in his statement, “All is not well at the Los Angeles Zoo. Contrary to what the zoo’s representatives may have told the Los Angeles City Council in order to get construction of the $42 million exhibit approved and funded, the elephants are not healthy, happy or thriving.” 

To say legislation wasted their time creating awareness of a known factual abusive situation is absurd.  If they had been aware of this issue earlier, they would have saved over $40mm or almost 20% of what, “Jon Regardie of the L.A. Downtown News calls an annual budget deficits north of $200 million.  I think the cumulative annual salaries of all the ‘Legislation” that “spent nearly 20 minutes on the matter, including recognizing a young animal rights activist” is nowhere close to the $40mm+ wasted on an exhibit that was unfit by design and spirit before it was built!!!!!  

This reader thinks Regardie could do that math and understand the lack of education on certain issues is filled with misinformation at every level of politics and boils down to money talks and money corrupts (remember-the Zoo IS A BUSINESS-it needs to turn a profit!). 

Councilman Cardenas and others, whom stood up for Elephant Awareness Day, are fully ‘aware’ of this issue and that ‘young animal rights advocate’ is just trying to ‘educate’ those misinformed groups at every level. 

Regardie continues, “Then there are the unknown costs of raising all this awareness.”, but that ‘ young advocate’ and the supporting non profits that have been responsible for creating this ‘awareness’ did not cost the tax payers one dime!   Kudos’s go to people like David Casselman, Esq. who have spent $4mm of their own money and the last 7 years of their time trying to create awareness!

Your article quoted Regardie to say. “The matter is, well, bizarre. Does [Councilman Tony Cardenas] think that 18% of Angelenos are unaware of the great animal known as "elephant." One co-worker and I debated whether Cardenas could have lost a bet with another council member….”.  Besides this being an uneducated slanderous statement, I can imagine we as the public would wish every councilman would lose a bet first with their ‘own’ pride or money, if it meant saving the LA tax payers $42mm next time!!!!!!!  Regardie must be quoting himself as part of the “18% of Angelenos unaware of the great animal known as "elephant”, otherwise he would not find this matter ‘bizarre’! Gordon F.

thank you ElephantAwarenessDay.com 

People who believe that having elephants (& other wild animals in traveling circuses) is humane need to educate themselves, or just use your common sense and think about things for a minute. Simply go online and read up on it. If you don't want to do that, like I said, think logically. Think of the size of the elephant. Think about how and where the elephant would have to be kept during various times of a typical day, 365 days of the year, as part of a traveling circus. The FACTS are that elephants (& other wild animals) are horribly and cruelly confined in order to be transported about the country and only temporarily kept at the various locations for usually a day or two. They are typically chained by the ankle and forced to stand such that they can move only a step or two in any direction, and kept this way almost every hour of each 24 hr. day. Sometimes after setting up the circus tent is completed they may have an extremely small outside area surrounded by a electric fence. During the night, and in bad weather,they are forced to spend it inside a truck. And of course when they are en route to their next location they are confined and hauled around in the back of trucks for hours and hours, and then when arriving at their destination have to stay in those trucks typically for many more hours while waiting for things to get setup. Ringling Bros. transports most of the time via trains 50 boxcars, with their Red and Blue Units each covering 16,000 miles annually to perform in 30-plus cities. Data in court case testimony re Ringling revealed that the elephants traveled 26 hours straight on average. Some legs extended beyond 70 hours without a break. The longest stretch: 100 hours on a 1,830-mile journey from Lexington, Kentucky, to Tucson, Arizona. Up to five elephants are crammed in each boxcar. The average elephant produces approximately 15 gallons of urine and 200-plus pounds of solid waste in a 24-hour period. Former circus workers described the unbearable stench when they opened the cars for water stops—during which they typically replenished supplies without letting the animals out. For more on this read this Pulitzer Prize winning article: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2011/10/ringling-bros-elephant-abuse?page=1 So I have only touched on the confinement. There also is the extremely well documented, and admitted to, physically abusive training techniques that are how the elephants are forced to do the "tricks" for the circusgoer's amusement. Just educate yourself by visiting any one of countless respected websites, such as those of ADI (Animal Defenders International), www.circuses.com, www.morebeautifulwild.com. Also there is an excellent very detailed extensive publication by Animal Defenders International on the Science of Suffering (re wild animals in traveling circuses) which you can read: https://www.ad-international.org/admin/downloads/SCS_US_rep_FINAL_Jun%2015%2008_LOW%20RES.pdf  

I just don't think screaming at little kids going to the circus with their parents is appropriate. I think PETA is really really gross how they handled this last night. They lined two blocks and surrounded people at the entrances screaming at them. The Westboro Baptists have more class than PETA. You can't "save" animals by hurting people.

On the topic of elephant awareness day, have you guys heard of PETA’s campaign to free Mali, the lone elephant at the decrepit and barren Manila Zoo? The president of the Philippines recently issued a directive stating that she should be transferred to a sanctuary, and PETA are working to gather public support behind the initiative and expedite her transfer. Please sign this petition to give Mali a second chance at life! www.Change.org/savemali  

Those who attend animal cruelty shows are complicit in the mistreatement of these sad abused animals.  Who needs to go to a show such as this excpet selfish inconsiderate snobs who live lives of self indulgent pleasure?   We have so far to go  before we evolve to civilized mind set as a society.

Nice article, sad story. I wonder if you are aware of the Performing Animal Welfare Society. This group had spearheded the introduction of HR3359, a bill that will prohibit transporting the animals that Ringling keeps. The group is coming to Los Angeles to do a non-animal Circus benefit show at the Avalon in Hollywood, September 29th and 30th. Info about the group, Circus PAWS, and HR3359 can be found on their website, http://PAWSweb.org.