What a doozy this one is, forwarded to me by Don Covington. PETA infiltrating municipal animal control departments, offering free instruction on what to look for, how to monitor elephant walks, inspect living quarters etc., etc.
No doubt, a lot of brainwashing is going down as well.
Remember Sacramento last year, for a time ruling out the appearance of Ringling elephants in the show? Sacto's inspectors, as it turns out (I didn't know) had been given the run-through by PETA operatives, for free. Resulted in the pachyderms first being refused the right to perform, then allowed to appear.
Now, in St. Louis, as reported yesterday (10/14) in the Post Dispatch, city animal control inspectors, having just taken PETA-directed instruction, were on "an elephant stakeout, deep in the city's urban heart," gazing at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus train, ready to follow a two-mile trek of the elephants out to the Scottrade Center.
This latest PETA strategy seen as as giving agencies around the country "greater familiarity with circus animals."
St. Louis officials said to have "welcomed" the Newkirk gang, characterized by the paper as "an avowed enemy of using animals for entertainment."
You can thank PETA in action, responsible for a St. Louis vet developing an aversion to the circus. That would be Abel Lopez, a nine-year animal control vet, who said he was "shocked." Before he took the PETA primer, Lopez had planned to take his two young daughters to the show. After the class, "But how," said he, "I don't want to take them."
The five-hour training class features "undercover footage of elephants being mistreated," according to the story. Class was presented Cindy Machado, a member of the Marin (CA) Humane Society.
With his new found expertise, Lopez thought he spotted arthritis in the knee of one of the elephants, and asked a PETA-hired vet for an opinion. Yes, agreed the vet. "But further examination was needed," reported the paper
Upon reaching the arena, Ringling officials refused PETA's operatives the right to take part in any inspections. Arguments flew back and forth between circus and city officials. A compromise brought in a St. Louis Zoo vet for some sort of consultation. The story goes on and on, and my patience is wearing thin.
Animal control officers are to stand vigil near Ringling's menagerie 15 hours a day.
Now to balance this all out, as I and a few others have said, that ugly PETA video taken of apparent mistreat of Ringling's elephants last year cast a blot on the show, and has yet, to my knowledge, to be answered back by the Felds, who originally claimed it to have been misleadingly edited. I'm still waiting to be told how.
All of these tangible setbacks. such as the damaging video, I am sure, have to have some kind of a cumulative adverse effect on all circuses. All the money in the world and all of the smartest Feld Entertainment lawyers and "expert" witnesses may not be enough in the court of public opinion.
Meanwhile, get used to more dog and pony acts.
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