Animal Welfare Group Creates Petition To Permanently Ban Circus Animal Acts at the Town Toyota Center

Seek to gather 1000 signatures to take to the next Public Facilities District board meeting this month

Asian elephants outside the Town Toyota Center in a small pen after the last Jordan World Circus in Wenatchee. Photo by Kris Cameron.

A group of animal welfare advocates calling themselves “North Central Washington for Animal Compassion” created a petition this week to gather signatures to take to the Public Facilities District’s next meeting. The PFD board of directors is in in charge of the Town Toyota Center, and the goal is to get acts featuring circus animals permanently banned from that venue.

Last month the board passed a six-month moratorium on acts with circus animals at that venue, but members of the animal welfare group want a city-wide ban in perpetuity. They explain why on their website.

“Animals used in circuses and similar traveling acts suffer cruel and abusive training methods, long hours of extreme confinement during transportation and housing, are forced under threat of punishment to perform unnatural and often harmful acts, and are deprived of their ability to exhibit their natural behaviors,” they wrote.

The petition is being hosted by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, an American animal law advocacy organization with the mission to “protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system.”

Anna Gullickson is a member of the local group and the co-founder and president of Ridge 2 River Animal Haven. Like the other members of the group, she cares greatly about animal welfare and has decried the Jordan World Circus’ treatment of the animals it brings to Wenatchee from their home base in Oklahoma.

“Circus animals spend up to 11 months of the year on the road, and 96% of that time is spent in confinement. That equates to 23 hours a day in cages, small enclosures, or chains, living in their own waste and exposed to extreme weather of all kinds. Animals are physically and emotionally abused to ensure they will perform for the pleasure of humans and are known to be forced to perform even when sick. The nature of traveling entertainment means that animals will never be free to express their natural instincts, they suffer from sores and injuries, and death is not uncommon,” she wrote. “I hope our community makes compassionate choices for all beings and hosts circuses only with human entertainers who are able to make the choice to perform or not.“

You can watch a video clip showing the pens the animals were kept in during the last Jordan World Circus in Wenatchee here.

According to the group’s website, contractors used by the Jordan World Circus have a long record of animal neglect, abuse, and threats to public safety.

“We spoke with a USDA specialist, who confirmed there are no inspections on record of circuses traveling with animals in the state of Washington,” they wrote.

They say that the Jordan World Circus organization has been frequently cited for failure to provide veterinary care to its animals. They say the organization fails to properly secure its animals, which has led to their escape in the past. That has resulted in harm to handlers and customers and even the death of a handler in 2000.

Other things they have been cited for are:

• handling animals in an abusive manner

• improper animal handling

• hoofed animals fed in an unsanitary manner

• improper food storage

• failure to provide animals with adequate nutrition, water, and shade

• failure to provide shelter and adequate space to two camels tethered to a truck with a short lead

• filthy enclosures

• providing dirty drinking water to animals, failing to provide adequate water to animals

• failure to provide adequate shelter

• failure to maintain corrals, inadequate barriers

• lack of space and recurring lack of exercise exacerbating animals’ loss of muscular control and difficulty moving

• multiple elephants on multiple occasions tested positive for tuberculosis

  keeping animals excessively exposed to the sun in temperatures above 100°F

• failure to provide adequate space

• failure to maintain transport trailers, use of damaged trailers, trailers in ill repair

• lack of controlled substance testing for drivers

• improper record keeping

The next PDF meeting is on Jan. 25, and the group plans to present the petition to the board. If you would like to sign the petition, you can do that here.

And you can watch a video I produced featuring Gullickson and Ridge 2 River Animal Haven here:

---