Undercover Video Exposes Circus Worker Abusing Elephant

[Guest guest]

For Immediate Release

August 19, 2002

Contact: Tom Rider, 917.930.5621

Elliot M. Katz, DVM, 415.388.9641

Undercover Video Footage Available

www.idausa.org www.circuses.com

 

UNDERCOVER VIDEO EXPOSES CIRCUS

WORKER ABUSING ELEPHANT:

Circus Whistleblower Comes Forward with Video

 

San Jose, CA -- Former Ringling Brothers¹ elephant handler Tom Rider

announced today that he would reveal recent video footage of a circus

employee tormenting elephants. Mr. Rider joins Elliot M. Katz, DVM,

president of In Defense of Animals (IDA) on Wednesday, August 21, 2002 at

1:30 p.m. at the Compaq Center at 525 W. Santa Clara Street in San Jose, in

releasing the new video footage.

 

The video was recorded last week and exposes a Ringling Bros. elephant

handler aggressively using a sharp bullhook on an elephant as the animals

were unloaded from boxcars. The video was filmed by local activists opposed

to using animals in circuses.

 

Circus animals are often abused violently during unloading from boxcars, in

which they are forced to travel, in chains and small cages, for up to 48

weeks per year, deprived of their natural freedom. The animal handlers

routinely use bullhooks, whips, and other weapons to control the animals,

according to Rider¹s congressional testimony and undercover videos.

 

Previous video footage caught Ringling¹s Mark Gebel-Williams and his crew

using the bullhook to discipline elephants in San Francisco only several

days after he was cited by the Santa Clara Valley Humane Society for

elephant abuse in San Jose in 2001.

 

Mr. Rider, who worked for two and a half years as an elephant handler for

Ringling Bros. and for Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus, resigned from

circus work after he witnessed the ongoing animal abuse. He now devotes his

career to speaking out against the animal cruelty that takes place at

Ringling Bros. and other circuses that use animals. Mr. Rider follows

Ringling Bros. across the country, conducting press conferences before

circus performances and providing his knowledge of the rampant mistreatment.

 

³Mr. Rider is a powerful resource, with his firsthand experience witnessing

the horrific cruelties that animals in circuses suffer on a daily basis,

such as forced chaining, travel, violent training techniques, and other

methods of abuse,² stated Dr. Katz. ³ We will continue to demand the removal

of animals from circuses, and for the public to stop supporting this

violence by only patronizing circuses that do not exploit and harm animals

for profit.²

 

# # #

 

In Defense of Animals is an international California-based animal advocacy

organization dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by

defending their rights, welfare and habitats.

 

Erin Williams

Assistant Director

In Defense of Animals

131 Camino Alto

Mill Valley, CA 94941

415.388.9641 p

415.388.0388 f

www.idausa.org

 

It is the policy of In Defense of Animals to no longer use language that

accepts the current concept of animals as property, commodities and/or

things. Rather than refer to ourselves or others as " owners " of animals we

share our lives with, we now refer to ourselves and others as " guardians " of

our animal friends and to animals as " he " or " she " rather than " it. "

Guardians do not buy or sell animals; instead they rescue and adopt. We urge

you to do the same.