Ringling Brothers Fighting Back in Elephant Wars

June 26, 2005
BY ANDREW HERRMANN Staff Reporter

It was a story too cute to resist: A spunky ninth-grader with a "soft spot for animals" gives up music for a new calling -- banning circus animals in Denver.

She collects 6,000 signatures to get the question on the ballot. She gets her mom to fill out the referendum paperwork. She's interviewed by out-of-town newspaper reporters and on national TV.

However, watching from suburban Washington, D.C., officials with the "Greatest Show on Earth," failed to see the charm of 15-year-old Heather Herman's crusade.

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey quickly joined the battle of the ballot box, participating in a $200,000 pro-circus campaign that included direct mail, yard signs and newspaper ads. Blinky the Clown, kind of Denver's version of Chicago's beloved Bozo, was enlisted. Meanwhile, national animal rights groups lined up behind Herman as the two sides held dueling press conferences and rallies.

In the end, Denver voters last summer, by a 2-to-1 ratio, sided with the circus.

"We don't sit back and just assume the right side will prevail,'' said Thomas L. Albert, vice president, government relations for Feld Entertainment Inc., which operates Ringling Brothers. "Even though we feel pretty comfortable this anti-circus sentiment is a minority, it's a vocal minority.''

Not coming without elephants

Now, the circus is closely watching developments in Chicago, where Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th) is set to introduce this week an ordinance that would effectively ban circus elephants in the city. Under Smith's proposal, circuses would have to provide each elephant with 10 acres of space -- five indoors and five outside.

Smith has been working with animal rights groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which contends that transporting elephants around the country for months, and the methods trainers use to teach the animals tricks, are abusive.

With Ringling Brothers typically carrying 10 to 12 Asian elephants to Chicago's United Center each November, the proposed ordinance would block the circus from stopping here, said Albert. "We're not coming without the elephants,'' he said.

Smith said the ordinance will be introduced Wednesday and would likely be up for a committee hearing next month. There, interested parties could testify -- an opportunity Albert said he is looking forward to.

"Chicago is a big commitment to us. We've been coming there almost every year since 1919,'' said Albert.

Combined with two weeks in suburban Rosemont, "out of our 101/2-month touring season, that's a month right there."

Big money under the big top

For Ringling Brothers and other circuses, there's big money in 8,000-pound pachyderms.

In Denver, which, like Chicago is a two-week stop for Ringling, the circus drew 250,000 people, generating an estimated $8 million. Albert said surveys of its customers show that its animals are the No. 1 attraction.

"There's a lot of money at stake,'' acknowledges Smith. (Denver's municipal cut from the two-week circus stay was $240,000, the Denver Post reported.) But she quotes 18th century philosopher Edmund Burke, "All that is needed for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.''

PETA has been lobbying aldermen, and passage, given rejections in other big cities like Seattle, seems unlikely. Still, hearings would provide a forum for both sides. "It'll be an education for the public,'' said PETA spokeswoman Debbie Leahy.

Among its complaints about Ringling Brothers, PETA notes that an 8-month-old elephant was euthanized last August after it fractured its legs falling off a circus pedestal, and a young elephant drowned in a pond in Texas in 1999.

Smith's ordinance would also ban a variety of hooks and tools that are standard for circus elephant trainers.

Animal rights groups have succeeded in banning circuses in about 15 communities in the United States, including the California towns of Huntington Beach and Pasadena, and in Boulder, Colo.

"Typically where there have been bans enacted, they've been in small towns we don't play directly,'' said Albert.

Albert argues that circus elephants are ambassadors for all elephants and generate interest in conservation efforts for wild animals.

As for training elephants to do tricks, Albert maintains that "most of the things you see in our show are just a variation of natural behavior.

"If we were teaching them to drive a car, OK,'' said Albert. "[But] go to Africa or Asia, and you'll see elephants standing on their hind legs, rolling around.'' Once taught, elephants will try to stand on their heads during off hours at the circus, he said. "In some respects, especially younger ones, [elephants are] like kids.''

Too valuable to hurt

Ringling Brothers owns 53 elephants. Twenty-four perform, 22 are at its 200-acre breeding facility, the Center for Elephant Conservation in central Florida, and seven are retired at another Florida location, Albert said.

Elephants are too valuable to the circus for it to abuse them, said Albert, adding, "Our elephants get plenty of exercise.''

In Chicago, the elephants are housed behind the United Center in a 164-foot-by-49-foot aluminum barn with a fenced outdoor play area of about the same size. They are chained by one front and one back leg at night, said a circus spokesman.

"The idea that the only way an elephant could be cared for properly is if they have 10 acres available to them is not correct,'' said Albert.

As animal rights groups dog circuses with proposed restrictions and noisy protests, the circuses have pushed back in the public relations wars.

Before arriving in a town, Ringling Brothers sends first-strike press materials to the media. Two years ago, Chicago reporters were warned in a letter from the circus about protesters who "pose as people who are looking out for the welfare of animals, but now use emotional rhetoric in an attempt to mislead the public and dictate to people what to eat, what to wear and how to spend their free time.''

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