Ringling is dead, but other abusive circuses live: New York is right to push to ban other animal performances

In the wake of the curtain closing last week on Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, New York State and New York City are slated to consider critically important measures to protect wild animals used in circus acts and public health and safety. Earlier this week, the state Senate passed the Elephant Protection Act, banning the use of elephants in entertainment; the Assembly is set to consider the bill soon. Likewise, the New York City Council is considering a bill flat-out banning the use of wild animals for entertainment.

These measures are crucial because despite Ringling’s closure, numerous exhibitors — virtually all of them with documented records of abuse and public endangerment — continue to haul animals into the city and the state. For example, UniverSoul Circus is wrapping up its New York stint, which included shows in Brooklyn, Queens and Mt. Vernon.

And at stake is not only the welfare of animals, but the safety of humans.

Wild animals, including tigers and zebras, have repeatedly escaped from UniverSoul. Tigers are apex predators who can easily kill humans. Indeed, captive big cats kill about one American every year, while injuring many more. At least two people have lost parts of their fingers to tigers with UniverSoul.

And while seemingly docile, zebras are also capable of lethal damage. Scientist Jared Diamond has observed, “A kick from a zebra can kill,” and zebras “are responsible for more injuries to American zookeepers each year than any other animal”; when these “often bad tempered” animals bite, “they tend not to let go.”

Circus veterinarians similarly caution that zebras “can be highly volatile, with a propensity for intense and unpredictable reactions that can lead to severe physical trauma … and even fatalities.”

UniverSoul also features elephants that have been exposed to tuberculosis. TB is a potentially fatal disease that elephants can transmit to humans — even without direct contact, because it’s airborne. Seven people recently contracted the disease after being around infected elephants at a zoo, while nine got it from a former circus elephant.

Numerous jurisdictions have prohibited UniverSoul’s elephants from entering because of their TB status, but they have been performing across New York anyway.

In fact, virtually every circus that brings elephants into the state has a history of tuberculosis. Experts estimate that tuberculosis is harbored by at least 18% of the Asian elephants in the United States — and 18% to 50% of Americans who work around elephants. Both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have noted the seriousness of the issue and the need to regulate it, yet neither is doing so.

Elephants also pose more obvious dangers. As the planet’s largest land mammals, they can easily kill a human with a single trunk swipe or foot stomp. Consider the incident in which an elephant with the Hamid Circus — which performed as the Ismailia Shrine Circus in Hamburg, New York, in March — fatally attacked a handler between Shrine circus performances.

In another incident, two circus elephants rampaged in Queens, leaving a dozen people injured and six hospitalized. Another circus elephant attacked a woman in Manhattan, pinning her to a wall and smashing her, causing a skull fracture, broken ribs, and a punctured lung.

The routine abuse that these animals endure only makes it more likely that they will lash out. The Royal Hanneford Circus recently performed in White Plains with a handler who had been caught on video attacking elephants with bullhooks and electric prods while screaming at them.

Similarly, the Garden Bros. Circus — which also goes under the name Piccadilly Circus — performed this year in Albany, Buffalo, Poughkeepsie, Syracuse and seven other locations in New York State with a handler who had recently been documented using the sharp, pointed tip of a bullhook to force an elephant’s head down while swearing at her. In a separate incident, he was also filmed hooking an elephant when she attacked another elephant in a circus ring after he completely lost control of the animals.

As the public learns the truth about the abuse and endangerment inherent in traveling wild animal acts, they are turning away from them. Ringling struggled with falling ticket sales for a decade before finally closing down, while circuses that chose to phase out animal acts are thriving. The days of tolerating routine animal abuse that also puts people at risk are coming to an end, and we should all hope New York’s lawmakers will do their part to herald a new era of safer and more humane entertainment.

Winders is the academic fellow in Harvard Law School’s Animal Law & Policy Program. Follow her on Twitter @DelciannaW.