Elephant Cruelty in the Shrine Circus
We’re all busy, but please take a few minutes to help those who are powerless and suffer at the hands of human greed and ignorance.
An elephant in a Shrine Circus in Pennsylvania kicked and killed his trainer.
Elephants in circuses suffer from brutal training and treatment, are forced to spend hundreds of hours in small travelling containers, and are deprived of everything instinctual to their nature.
Please voice your outrage over keeping elephants in circuses.
Here is info and graphic videos of how elephants suffer in circuses: http://www.circuses.com/
Here is info on the Shriner’s mission: http://www.alepposhriners.com/shrinersmission.html
Contact info:
Irem Shrine, P. O. Box 307, Dallas, PA 18612.
Shriners International Headquarters, 2900 Rocky Point Drive, Tampa, FL 33607, email: shrinepr@shrinenet.org.
Email Shrine Circus: roger@shrinecircus.com
Write your local Congressperson and ask them to support legislation that would abolish elephants in traveling shows.
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There is NO NEED for animal cruelty!
I AM OUTRAGED AT THE WAY THESE ANIMALS R BEING TREATED…U NEED 2 RELEASE THEM 2 A SANCTUARY WHERE THEY CAN B W OTHER ELEPHANTS & PLAY & BREATHE FRESH AIR….WHAT IS WRONG W U PEOPLE…I’M SICK & TIRED OF HEARING OF ANIMAL ABUSE….IF THE TRAINER WASN’T ABUSING HIM THEN WHY DID HE KICK HIM & BECOME VOILENT…CZ HE WZ PUSHED AROUND 1 2 MANY TIMES….LET THE ANIMALS IN YUR CIRCUS GO…..BROOKE WELCH…HELSINKI, FINLAND
Set the Elephant’s FREE
Release the elephants into a sanctuary suitable for elephants and bring no more to the circus big top!
I received a phone call last week from the Shriners asking for a donation to send children to see a Circus, I bluntly told the man that was calling that I wouldn’t donate because I don’t like the way the animals are treated and hung up.
The time has come for the abuse of animals to end. Millions of people around the world are outraged by the way elephants are treated in circuses. Animals are not toys for our entertainment. They are individuals with the right to live their lives the way nature intended for them, not chained and abused for profit. This is inmoral, unethical, and unacceptable. Release the elephants to a sanctuary and stop using animals in circuses.
These majestic giants need to be wild like they were intended to be not for entertainmenst and abuse. Please let the elephants spend the rest of their lives in a sanctuary at least!
I don’t believe in using animals for our entertainment. The only way that should be done is watching them in their natural habitat. Not at the expense of their pain and suffering.
Circus’s use to be fun at one time. Then I grew up. I will not tolerate the misuse and suffering of innocent animals. You folks are going down.
I am deeply saddened to know that my fellow humans exploit these lovely and sensitive creatures insouciantly and without remorse. They have no feelings for them, no empathy for the pain they are inflicting on these beautiful animals who are so intelligent and just want to live their lives in peace! This knowledge that people can harm animals without so much as a blink of the eye is terrible to me.
The more I’ve learned about elephants, the more angry and sad I am about the way they are treated by humans. They are not commodities, to be exploited in the name of ‘entertainment’ and profit. They suffer greatly when taken out of their natural habitat, away from their herd, forced to do unnatural things, and live in confined spaces. And shame on you for your horrid training tactics. Is this what Shriners are all about? Fooling the public into believing this is all good fun, when the reality is anything but for these hapless elephants.
Putting blinders on isn’t going to make reality go away. What you, and all others who enslave elephants are doing is just plain wrong. Stick with clowns and acrobats, and leave wild animals alone.
Leave those animals… please.
You can be more creative with acrobats, dancer and so on. But please don’t harm those animals.
Leave te elephants alone. Stop abusing them they don’t belong in a circus
No more animals in the circus! Please.
This death was no accident—it was a tragedy waiting to happen. Wild animals do not belong in captivity. For humans to think they have any right to take wild animals out of their natural habitats for human amusement is a grievous error of judgment. We take them from their homes and families, deprive them of all that is meaningful in their lives, chain them, beat them, intimidate them, make them wear idiotic costumes, force them to perform, and give them demeaning names such as Dumbo. The photo accompanying the news story clearly shows the bullhook being used as a visual cue of intimidation. In addition, the elephant wears “decorated” leg irons, as a further reminder that he is enslaved. It is no wonder humans die as a result of trying to control and tame wild animals. To rule such deaths “accidental” is to perpetuate our own arrogance in refusing to acknowledge the underlying cause: wild animals do not belong in captivity.
A pity that these huge and gentle giants have not voice and also no choice, but to endure the cruel actions towards them!
How sad is the elephants life when they lost their dignity and their proud because of the trainers image neurosis. I would like to see the trainers making funny and stupid things. Here in germany we are also fighting against circus with animals. My grandfather was an animal trainer, but many years ago we started to change our opinion. Please open your heart and stop abusing animals for this doubtful fun.
How sad is the elephants life when they lost their dignity and their proud because of the trainers image neurosis. I would like to see the trainers making funny and stupid things. Here in germany we are also fighting against circus with animals. My father was an animal trainer, but many years ago I started to change my opinion. Please open your heart and stop abusing animals for this doubtful fun.
These gentle giants should never be in a circus and should be put together where they can all have eachothers company. They suffer before the performance when they don’t always do what’s expected from them. They’re taken away from their mothers, so have no interaction whatsoever with other elephants. I think it’s cruel the way they are treated. This was one accident waiting to happen. It’ll be the poor elephant who’ll suffer for this as well which is not right either.
IMAGINEMOS POR UN MOMENTO SI FUERAMOS ESOS ELEFANTES. TODO EL DIA ENCARCELADOS, CON “CADENA PERPETUA”. Y LA PREGUNTA FUNDAEMNTAL ES QUE CRIMEN COMETIERON¿ CUALQUIER ANIMAL DEBE TERMINAR ABSILUTAMENTE DESQUICIADO DE STAR ENCERRADO DE POR VIDA, CUANDO SU HABITAT ES LA SELVA, EN UNA PALABRA LA LIBERTAD
What goes around comes around, you can expect the elephants to retaliate, a word to those whom abuse..you will get yours, and to the circus…find a new home for these animals, they have suffered enough, they were not put on earth to perform and slave for our amusement. Release them!!
When will this craziness end?? Why do you take a large elephant, put it in a small cage, force it to do acts for entertainment purposes. God did not create these animals for these purposes. How can humans be so uncaring? This is outrageous!!!!
No animals should be involved these days in a circus. I will never go to a circus that has.
Set the Elephant’s FREE
They definitely do not belong there!
Your terrible people, why you doing that to innocent, free animals?? They are not belong to circus bacause they are creation to free living in they own places in the nature! Your people have´nt living heart but it´s only cold stone! Stop that suffering right now and get the elephants free!!
Oh my God, I´m sorry because my bad language! I mean to say, that let those elephants go to freedom in nature! They have similar feelings as we have so they suffering like us!
Iy`s time evreybody knows the suffering these poor animals go through in circus. We must avoid taking our children there, until they stop “using” animals in their spectacles. None in my family goes. I`ts horrible the way they treat them and this actions should be severely punished by authorities
This is nothing but legalized cruelty for human entertainment! Please stop this brutal training of circus animals, transport that is dangerous and inhumane, and return them to a life in the wild or oin a sanctuary where they can live their live as God meant them to.
Circuses were a bad idea from the beginning. How anyone could pay money to see animals perform stupid tricks and know the life that they lead is horrible is beyond me. Who would be so cruel and sick to make money from making these animals suffer is only greedy and should be made to live chained or in a cage and should have to perform tricks to be fed.
When we know better, we do better. You know better, so it’s time for change! People are no longer willing to see animals used and abused to entertain us! Allow the elephants to go to sanctuary, where they can travel the land, roll in the mud and enjoy the rest of their years on earth. Do the right thing.
What monsters mankind are. When will this stop? You must help!
Dear Friends of Elephants:
It is so sad and pathetic that humans abuse animals and even sadder when they are social, gentle creatures like the elephants.
After seeing a show last summer on Jane Velez Mitchell of how Ringling Bros. Circus abuses the elephants, I started a campaign here in Tucson, AZ and my website to try to draw attention to this
situation. I am trying to get the word out about sending Queenie who has had years of abuse at the hands of Davenport in Texas to PAWS (Performing Animal Welfare Society) which is elephant heaven in the West versus sending her to a very small enclosure at the San Antonio Zoo with Lucy, another sad, lonely elephant who has had no chance to socialize with other elephants. Call Tom Vilsack, Executive Director of the USDA at 202-720-3631 about the constant breeding. It must be stopped. This is not some game, this is the lives of baby elephants that are being born infected and dying a tortuous death!!
It is unnecessary especially with the female being a carrier for Herpes. Call Jane Velez Mitchell and have her draw attention to this Woodland Zoo and the horrible, inhumane breeding program and she will do a show on it. If they get enough emails and public attention, there should be pressure to stop it. Also get Dr. Joyce Poole, Phd on elephant behavior involved. She will help because she loves elephants. See http://www.pawsweb.org and also my website is http://www.freetheelephants.com.
Thanks for all you do.
Cindy Wines
Animal Lover and Defender
This practice is barbaric. When will it end?
I am a freshman college student who was asked to write an argument paper. After days of searching for a topic that would anger me enough to write a good paper i came across the cruel treatment of elephants in the circus. I wasnt aware of how devestating this issue truely was. Now i am angry and disgusted! My heart deeply hurts for these animals. SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE!
No more animals in the circus please! If circuses would take out all the animals I bet they would have more people go, so its really a win win for everyone!!
Circuses were a bad idea from the beginning. How anyone could pay money to see animals perform stupid tricks and know the life that they lead is horrible is beyond me. Who would be so cruel and sick to make money from making these animals suffer is only greedy and should be made to live chained or in a cage and should have to perform tricks to be fed.
I am a freshman college student who was asked to write an argument paper. After days of searching for a topic that would anger me enough to write a good paper i came across the cruel treatment of elephants in the circus. I wasnt aware of how devestating this issue truely was. Now i am angry and disgusted! My heart deeply hurts for these animals. SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE!
What monsters mankind are. When will this stop? You must help!
I HOPE TO GOD WE CAN STOP THIS UNNECESSARY TREATMENT OF THESE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES AS THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO LIVE THEIR LIVES FREE IN THE WILD AND ITS NOT UP TO US TO KEEP THEM IN CAGES THAT ARE TOO SMALL FOR THEM AND FOR THEM TO BE SICKLY TREATED. I AM DISGUSTED BY ALL OF THIS AND I WISH FOR THE CIRCUS TO END, NOW.
Prayer for All Abused Elephants and Animals the World Over 2:07 AM
“For as long as space endures And for as long as living beings remain Until then may I too abide To dispel the misery of the world.” Shantideva – 8th C Buddhist saint
May the merit of this work be dedicated to all the orphans of the world.
May all beings be free from suffering
Every sentient being is an individual, precious and possesses Buddha nature. Compassion is action – Speak out and be the change you wish to see in the world.
Buddhist Prayer for Those Suffering in Factory Farms and for Liberation of Brother and Sister Animals.
May all sentient beings in the animal realm
subject to unbearable pain in labs throughout the world
be free from suffering.
May alternatives to animal experimentation and testing
be used immediately.
May Bodhicitta fill the hearts of those who imprison them.
May all sentient beings from the animal realm
who suffer endless days, months, years
locked in tiny cages unable to move, be
filled with peace and calm.
May the many billions waiting in slaughterhouse
lines be free of fear.
May the hearts of those who work in abattoirs
be filled with Bodhicitta so the very thought of harm is purified.
May they never kill again and may the slaughterhouse lines become immediately empty.
May no animal be afraid or depressed.
May their bodies be free of injuries, disease and illness.
May those who need homes, or who have been driven from them
find shelter, plentiful food & water.
May there be liberation for those
tortured for fur, entertainment or who are hunted.
May those who believe they are superior
to our brother & sister animals
develop perfect equanimity.
And may they realise in their hearts
that all sentient beings possess Buddha nature
And they are not ours to kill or exploit.
May the many billions of land and sea dwelling sentient beings
who are abused, exploited and killed due to greed, hatred and ignorance
be free of suffering
May they experience complete and perfect enlightenment,
through the virtue of my efforts and prayers.
May I be a voice for the voiceless.
In short, may all human and non-human sentient beings
live together in harmony, peace and equanimity
and achieve perfect Enlightenment quickly.
why so mean to animals. how sad.i love animals. but i cannot understand how people be so cruel. let them be free. i wish i could help these animals and put people in jail with a chain to their leg. see how it feel.
I just love animals! And another news… I just found out that Manila Zoo has a cute elephant named Mali, and she is the only elephant in the Philippines! She has lived there for almost all of her lives, for more than 30 years. The zoo should feel like her sweet and cozy home now. But then, I read some articles in PETAAsiaPacific.com, and I noticed that Mali is in fact sad and lonely! Look at her here: https://www.facebook.com/FreeMali. She is like a prisoner, who cannot spend her days with her friends, roam in vast territories, and have delicious adequate food! She even suffers from foot problems. Why does she deserve this? 🙁 Please Help Her!
Indian and African elephants are taken from their mothers at birth. Many of the mothers are killed by poachers, the calves taken illegally, and sold to buyers who bring them to the US, and other countries to start training them when they are babies with bullhooks, tazers, chains, pitchforks, rods, and sticks. An elephant balancing on an object, dancing, doing tricks, does not come naturally, and takes years of torture and abuse for the elephant to learn these tricks. During the shows, the cuts are often covered by heavy circus make-up.
Elephants have to keep their legs tethered in chains for up to 26 hours while traveling in circus trains to reach their destinations, giving them very little space to move. They are forced to travel chained close to each other, standing in their own dung in small box-cars over those 26 hours when they travel on long road-trips. Traveling wears on the elephants, leaving them tired and distraught, then they are expected to perform after they get off the train. They are sometimes deprived of ample water and food during these travels, and it is very easy for them to be injured while traveling. This is true of all wild animals in the circus, not just the elephants. I read of one fifty-four year old elephant being prodded to get on a train. It stressed the elephant so much, the elephant collapsed, and died. This is what goes on behind the shows we do not see. These stories are easily found on the internet, and documented.
Elephants have great memories. After taking a lifetime of abuse, they are apt to react as they are wild. They will attack after being great performers all their lives, and then what happens? Chaos, and the elephant is blamed for this, when it is the humans in the circus, and the people who sell the elephants who are at fault.
Please help us end the abuse of all animals in the circus. The circus can and will go on with beautiful acts. They no longer need to include our animals who are going extinct, or any animal. If we want our children and theirs to see these animals for another generation, and beyond, we need to make some changes in the circus now. People have the chance to choose to be in the circus, while the animals are abused. It is time for it to stop before the great animals we know now are gone forever.