
For Immediate Release:
March 16, 2023
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Tampa, Fla. â As members of Shriners International gather for a conference at the Tampa Airport Marriott tomorrow, theyâll be met with disturbing video footage of an elephant trainer who routinely partners with Shrine circuses instructing other trainers to sink bullhooksâweapons that resemble a fireplace poker with a sharp hook on one endâinto elephantsâ flesh and twist them until they scream. Courtesy of PETA, the footage will be playing on a truck that will also show a baby elephant being hit with a bullhook alongside the words âShameful Shriners!â as it cruises around downtown.
âThe elephants used in Shrine circuses have been taken away from their mothers, imprisoned, shackled, trained with violence, and forced to perform against their will since they were infants,â says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. âAs Shriners meet to discuss their future, PETA is calling on club members to step out of the Dark Ages, end their support of elephant suffering, and showcase only human talent in their circuses.â
Shrine circusesâsuch as the notorious Hadi, Sharon, and Yaarab circusesâare among the very last remaining shows that still deprive wild animals of any semblance of a natural life. The Moolah Shrine recently dropped elephants from its circus following months of protests by animal advocates. Shrine circuses in Canada havenât used wild animals in years, and the Western Montana and AAD Shrine circuses have ended wild-animal acts. PETA is calling on every holdout Shrine circus to follow the lead of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus by using only willing human participants.
PETAâs mobile billboard will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, March 17, and will circle the conference location, Shriners International Headquarters, and downtown Tampa.
PETAâwhose motto reads, in part, that âanimals are not ours to use for entertainment,â opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Source: Peta.org