Video of the Day: The Elephants Arrive

Around midnight, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus came into Manhattan with its traditional procession of elephants, other animals and performers through the Queens Midtown Tunnel towards Madison Square Garden. Kelly Loudenberg was on the scene and captured comments from the circus as well as protesters. She also writes:

City Council Member Rosie Mendez has introduced legislation to ban wild animal acts. The legislation would prohibit the display of wild or exotic animals for public entertainment or amusement. Recently, the Bronx Zoo decided that they would be closing their elephant exhibit after the death of one or two of its three aging elephants. John Philips, executive director for The League of Humane Voters says, "Not even the Bronx Zoo can provide for elephants' needs, why should we expect that Madison Square Garden can?"

Tom Alpert, who handles animal policy and government relations for Ringling Bros. insists that the animals are well taken care of.

Also, check out photographs from photobymatt, FlavaDave, kirby10011 and Matthew McDermott.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment, Miscellaneous on March 28, 2007 4:24 PM

Comments [rss]

Javier

This so called "entertainment" is nothing short of animal abuse...poor animals haveing to be in a cage while traveleing and then forces to perform acts for us humans to see....animal abuse sucks

skip

Yeah and we should get rid of pet ownership too. Those people are just exploiting animals for their own emotional needs.

right on the money! leashes, dog trainers employing behavior modification, pets holed up in an apartment. That is just as bad, sometimes worse.

How about these wacky groups work WITH the circus, zoos, etc. and maybe employ actual scientists to learn more about proper living conditions and probably animal wishes- and not trans-gender soccer mom (or dad) freaks with weird agendas.

robin.g

That bello dude is scary. But Big Apple Circus has that Granny clown, she's pretty freaky.

Daniel P

Thanks to John Phillips (they misspelled his name) for saying what many of us are thinking. These animals however entertaining are suffering behind closed doors, and having them parade around as "innocent" fun is perversely wrong.

These animals are not given the same care and attention that even house pets are given - they're maltreated and forced to perform to extremely exacting standards or else be punished.

There must be a way of enjoying the wonder and awesomeness of nature without subjugating animals. It's time for a new era of responsible entertainment that teaches people about the real world - the natural world, and not about human domination.

Cynthia King

BAN Animal acts. They are inhumane. We Support humane legislation.

We Support Rosie Mendez.

AND WE VOTE!!!!

Matthew

30 miles a day?

nick

i grew up in a loving family and we had a great dog that we took wonderful care of...could you please explain how we were exploiting our dog for our emotional needs?

angry

We also need to get rid of the zoos because they also exploit animals for entertainment

Yeah and we should get rid of pet ownership too. Those people are just exploiting animals for their own emotional needs.

gabe

This is a sad, sad sight. No matter how well the circus takes care of these animals, it's just wrong. The more we learn about how intelligent elephants are, the less fun this looks. Oh, and that clown - what's is name, Boffo or something - is so lame.

Big Apple Circus all the way.

Toby

Rosie Mendez has the right idea.

We also need to get rid of the zoos because they also exploit animals for entertainment, although they don't have a freak with too much hair gel fronting for them.