Good Grief! The Bachelor takes dates to circus 10/8/07

October 9, 2007

Please let ABC know your opinion of the circus. See below. MM***********************On October 8, on ABC's The Bachelor, Brad took a group of young women to "The Greatest Show on Earth," as it was called many times -- the circus. On their group date, the competitors met a captive elephant and watched performing animals.Brad, the Bachelor, doesn't seem like a bad guy who would ever intentionally support cruelty, so obviously we still have our work cut out for us when it comes to letting the general public know what goes on behind the Big Top. If you are new to animal protection, and don't know the sadness of the circus, please check out www.Circuses.com . You'll find video from major circuses of baby elephants being beaten -- one till he drowned in a pond rather than moving towards

land and thereby closer to the trainer with the bullhook. In one video, a trainer shows his protï¿½gï¿½ how to sink the bullhook in and wiggle it around in the elephants' flesh, because "when you hear them screaming you know you've got their attention."Please make sure ABC gets our attention on this, and hears from a lot of people disappointed that a popular and supposedly fun show was set at the circus. Obviously, the best possible people for the producers to hear from are those who actually watch The Bachelor from time to time, but polite notes from anybody can bring the point home. Though it is hard not to be angry when the circus is promoted, please remember that rude and angry notes only reinforce the idea that it is rude and angry people who disapprove of animal circuses, whereas, in fact, all compassionate people would be distressed if they knew the details.The Bachelor web site has message boards athttp://abc.go.com/primetime/bachelor/index?pn=mb & cat=15348 which are filled with chatter about which gal should win. It would be great to see some talk about the choice of the circus as a venue. There is a discussion headed, "We have a circus to watch don't we?" but it isn't really going yet. Or ABC takes comments at http://tinyurl.com/2szdx4 . Please let ABC know why the circus is not a good setting for a fun show. And please use your own words -- a line or two is plenty, in fact best. Networks are interested in hearing from their viewers, they are not interested in form letters.Now the question is, do I thank Karen Tracey and Liz Pardue for getting me to watch The Bachelor? Hmmm... Yes! I love it when other activists let me know their guilty little secrets -- all for the good of the cause. Yours and the animals',Karen

Dawn(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)To discontinue DawnWatch alerts go to http://www.DawnWatch.com/nothanks.php-------You are d to DawnWatch using the following address: dogs_goodDate: Tue Oct 9 00:04:28 2007

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