Urge the American Humane Association to Join the Animal Welfare Community's Efforts to Ban Bullhooks

June 2, 2007

Urge the American Humane Association to Join the Animal Welfare Community's Efforts to Ban Bullhooks In a move that shocked animal advocates across the country, the American Humane Association’s (AHA) Film and Television unit director, Karen Rosa, stood beside the circus industry and other elephant abusers at a California hearing on legislation that would ban the use of sharp steel-tipped bullhooks. During the hearing, Rosa stood up and “wholeheartedly” opposed the proposed bullhook ban, which would go a long way toward protecting elephants in circuses and zoos from abuse. Bullhooks resemble fireplace pokers and have only one purpose: to inflict pain on elephants. Despite its appearance, elephants’ skin is as sensitive as ours is. Bullhooks cause suffering and trauma, including lacerations, puncture wounds, swelling, abscesses, and bruises. Last year, PETA monitored animals who were traveling

with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and documented that handlers were aggressively using the bullhook on elephants in addition to bullhook abuse that caused a bloody wound behind an elephant’s sensitive ear flap. This abuse was captured in the open, so we can only imagine the hideous cruelty that takes place behind the scenes when no enforcement agencies or animal advocates are watching. We are asking AHA to join PETA, The Humane Society of the United States, Animal Protection Institute, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, United Animal Nations, and numerous other animal advocacy groups by supporting legislation that would ban the use of bullhooks on elephants. Please ask AHA

board chair David Gies to establish an official policy against these cruel devices, which are used on a daily basis to manipulate and dominate elephants. Please send polite comments to: David Gies, AHA Board ChairAnimal Assistance Foundation Executive Director 455 Sherman St., # 462Denver, CO 80203 303-744-8396303-744-7065 (fax)d_dog For more information about the abuse of animals in circuses—including eyewitness accounts from former Ringling employees about the daily abuse that they witnessed—please visit Circuses.com. Please take a moment to speak up for these animals—who suffer every day—and urge your friends, family members, and colleagues to speak up as well.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05zhL1YUd8Q* Ralph Waldo Emerson sums it up nicely, "You have just dined, and however

scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity." For those that don't get it, here's a simple test: If you wouldn't do it to your cat or dog, then don't do it to another animal. Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight. -Albert Schweitzer " - Show Compassion, Go Vegan!

It's here! Your new message!Get

new email alerts with the free Toolbar.