Animal–Free Circus Marquette Protesters on the 8th Day Radio Show

MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN – Tom, Mandy, Adina, and Quamae were found by Todd Pazz outside the United States Federal Building Court House and Post Office protesting the use of animals in circuses.  Their organization is called Animal–Free Circus Marquette.   They were invited on the 8th Day to explain to mission and goals.

Topics discussed:

• Protesting animals in circuses
• All Entertainment animals are abused
• Not natural to have animals do what no wild animal would do
• Travel conditions and treatment are awful
• Animals to cannot consent
• “Fundraising” could better without animals, and the animals should live out the rest of their lives in sanctuaries
• Dumbo Movie and culture of animals in popular imagination
• They plan to protest peacefully the Shrine Circus Family Circus soon coming to town
• Plan to get Marquette City Commission to ban circuses that use animals
• Confidence that plan to ban circuses that use animals will happen
• Changes in the circus industry, including

Listen:

• Sunny.FM Media Player: ( 13 Min. mp3)
• Default Device Player: ( 13 Min. mp3)

Online petition at https://www.change.org/p/marquette-city-commission-animal-free-circus may better explain their protest:

Please help us ban the use of animals in the circus in our community. We want an animal-free circus that aligns with our values of caring about animals and the safety of our community members.

We strongly oppose traveling circuses with wild animals, such as Shrine Circus, in Marquette County because of this industry’s long history of well-documented abuse, neglect and disgraceful handling of wild animals used in their shows. Elephants, tigers, lions, bears, camels and other intelligent sentient animals are beaten into submission with “training” instruments and forced into unnatural and harmful postures. Circus animals must be “broken” in order to get them to perform. Baby elephants born into the circus are constrained and stretched with ropes tied to all 4 legs until they collapse into submission. Undercover investigations documenting these atrocities can be viewed on YouTube.

These wild animals travel across the country in horribly confining trailers with inadequate ventilation, and hygiene. Elephants typically walk 30- 50 miles a day in the wild. Captive elephants are kept shackled much of the time while on tour, or in tight unnatural spaces. Lions and tigers are trained with cruel tactics in order to get them to jump through hoops of fire. Animals live and travel in filthy conditions. Undercover investigations documenting these atrocities are readily available on YouTube.

If animal welfare isn’t enough to discourage you from attending a circus with animals, please consider that no matter how ‘broken’ or ‘tamed’ a wild animal is, they are still wild by nature and pose a threat to humans. Many people, including circus patrons, have been injured by animals at the circus. One recent event occurred on 9/16/18 when a frightened camel injured 7 people. The Shrine circus continued the show without trepidation.

In addition, some circus animals carry diseases transmittable to humans including tuberculosis. It’s estimated that at least 12% of elephants used in the circus carry tuberculosis.

Here is a link to some violations by the Shrine Circus. https://secure.mediapeta.com/peta/PDF/ShrineCircusFactsheet.pdf

The bipartisan U.S. House Bill, H.R. 1759, known as the Traveling Exotic Animal and Public Safety Protection Act will amend the Animal Welfare Act to restrict the use of exotic and wild animals in traveling circuses and traveling exhibits. Eighty-one jurisdictions in 29 states (and several countries) have some form of prohibition to stop the violence against wild and exotic animals.

It is time for Marquette County to step up and prohibit the abuse and neglect of wild and exotic animals in our community. We will no longer tolerate the perverse abuses of the circus industry in our community. We fully support and welcome circuses that showcase consenting human performer’s unique talents.